Average faces tend to be more attractive than distinctive faces, but average faces made using computer-graphics are highly symmetric and have very smooth skin. Because both symmetry and smooth skin are attractive, this might contribute to the attractiveness of average faces.
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| Individual 1 | Individual 2 | Individual 3 | Individual 4 | Individual 5 | Average of 5 |
In our experiment, we asked people to choose which was more attractive from pairs of faces that differed in averageness, but had the same skin smoothness. The pairs were either asymmetric or perfectly symmetric.
| Asymmetric | ||
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96% of the time, people chose the more average face as the more attractive when the faces were asymmetric and therefore the more average face was more symmetric than the less average face. |
| Less Average | More Average | |
| Symmetric | ||
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92% of the time, people chose the more average face as the more attractive when the faces were perfectly symmetric and therefore the more average face was not more symmetric than the less average face. |
| Less Average | More Average | |
We found that the more average faces were chosen as the more attractive for both the asymmetric faces and the perfectly symmetric faces. However, people had stronger preerences for the average faces when the images were asymmetric. This suggests that the increase in symmetry caused by averageness contributes to the attractiveness of average faces, but does not entirely explain it.
Learn more about the attractiveness of averageness and symmetry in our resources for students.