Departamento de Anatomía, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Distrito Federal, México.
PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e52317. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052317. Epub 2013 Jan 9.
Antisocial and criminal behaviors are multifactorial traits whose interpretation relies on multiple disciplines. Since these interpretations may have social, moral and legal implications, a constant review of the evidence is necessary before any scientific claim is considered as truth. A recent study proposed that men with wider faces relative to facial height (fWHR) are more likely to develop unethical behaviour mediated by a psychological sense of power. This research was based on reports suggesting that sexual dimorphism and selection would be responsible for a correlation between fWHR and aggression. Here we show that 4,960 individuals from 94 modern human populations belonging to a vast array of genetic and cultural contexts do not display significant amounts of fWHR sexual dimorphism. Further analyses using populations with associated ethnographical records as well as samples of male prisoners of the Mexico City Federal Penitentiary condemned by crimes of variable level of inter-personal aggression (homicide, robbery, and minor faults) did not show significant evidence, suggesting that populations/individuals with higher levels of bellicosity, aggressive behaviour, or power-mediated behaviour display greater fWHR. Finally, a regression analysis of fWHR on individual's fitness showed no significant correlation between this facial trait and reproductive success. Overall, our results suggest that facial attributes are poor predictors of aggressive behaviour, or at least, that sexual selection was weak enough to leave a signal on patterns of between- and within-sex and population facial variation.
反社会和犯罪行为是多因素特征，其解释依赖于多个学科。由于这些解释可能具有社会、道德和法律影响，因此在任何科学主张被视为真理之前，都需要对证据进行持续审查。最近的一项研究提出，相对于面部高度而言，脸宽相对于脸高（fWHR）较大的男性更有可能通过心理上的权力感表现出不道德行为。这项研究基于这样的报告，即性二态性和选择会导致 fWHR 与攻击性之间存在相关性。在这里，我们表明，来自属于广泛遗传和文化背景的 94 个人类现代群体的 4960 个人，并没有表现出显著的 fWHR 性别二态性。进一步使用具有相关民族志记录的人群以及墨西哥城联邦监狱的男性囚犯样本进行分析，这些囚犯因不同程度的人际攻击性犯罪（杀人、抢劫和小过失）而被判刑，但没有显示出显著的证据，表明具有更高好战性、攻击性或受权力影响行为的人群/个体表现出更高的 fWHR。最后，对 fWHR 与个体适应性的回归分析表明，这种面部特征与生殖成功率之间没有显著相关性。总的来说，我们的结果表明，面部特征是预测攻击性行为的不佳指标，或者至少，性选择的强度不足以在性别内、性别间和群体面部变化的模式上留下信号。
