Is medial canthal tilt a powerful cue for facial attractiveness?

PURPOSE

To identify medial canthal tilt as an important cue used by judges in evaluating human female facial attractiveness.

METHODS

An experimental study was conducted with the use of SuperLab Pro, and judges had to make a forced choice between unmodified faces and faces that had their medial canthal tilt accentuated through the use of Adobe Photoshop CS.

RESULTS

Female faces with accentuated medial canthal tilt were preferred 93% of the time over unmodified faces (p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Medial canthal tilt appears to be a powerful cue used in judging human female facial attractiveness. Its power may be due to its relation to the neotenic and sexually dimorphic cue of palpebral fissure inclination.