人类面部的对称、美观与健康外观。

Appearance of symmetry, beauty, and health in human faces.

作者信息

Zaidel Dahlia W, Aarde Shawn M, Baig Kiran

机构信息

Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 951563 Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States.

出版信息

Brain Cogn. 2005 Apr;57(3):261-3. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2004.08.056.

DOI:10.1016/j.bandc.2004.08.056

PMID:15780460

Abstract

Symmetry is an important concept in biology, being related to mate selection strategies, health, and survival of species. In human faces, the relevance of left-right symmetry to attractiveness and health is not well understood. We compared the appearance of facial attractiveness, health, and symmetry in three separate experiments. Participants inspected front views of faces on the computer screen and judged them on a 5-point scale according to their attractiveness in Experiment 1, health in Experiment 2, and symmetry in Experiment 3. We found that symmetry and attractiveness were not strongly related in faces of women or men while health and symmetry were related. There was a significant difference between attractiveness and symmetry judgments but not between health and symmetry judgments. Moreover, there was a significant difference between attractiveness and health. Facial symmetry may be critical for the appearance of health but it does not seem to be critical for the appearance of attractiveness, not surprisingly perhaps because human faces together with the human brain have been shaped by adaptive evolution to be naturally asymmetrical.

摘要

对称是生物学中的一个重要概念，与物种的配偶选择策略、健康状况和生存息息相关。在人类面部，左右对称与吸引力和健康之间的关联尚未得到充分理解。我们在三个独立的实验中比较了面部吸引力、健康状况和对称性的表现。在实验1中，参与者在电脑屏幕上查看面部的正视图，并根据其吸引力在5分制量表上进行评判；在实验2中根据健康状况评判；在实验3中根据对称性评判。我们发现，在女性或男性面部中，对称性与吸引力之间没有强烈关联，而健康状况与对称性有关联。吸引力和对称性评判之间存在显著差异，但健康状况和对称性评判之间不存在差异。此外，吸引力和健康状况之间也存在显著差异。面部对称性可能对健康外观至关重要，但似乎对吸引力外观并不关键，这或许并不奇怪，因为人类面部和人类大脑在适应性进化过程中已自然形成不对称。