Marcinkowska Urszula M, Terraube Julien, Kaminski Gwenaël
Department of Public Health, Jagiellonian University, Medical College, Grzegorzecka st. 20, 31-531 Cracow, Poland.
Department of Biology, University of Turku, FI-20014, Finland.
Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 29;6:33545. doi: 10.1038/srep33545.
Faces are an important cue to multiple physiological and psychological traits. Human preferences for exaggerated sex typicality (masculinity or femininity) in faces depend on multiple factors and show high inter-subject variability. To gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying facial femininity preferences in men, we tested the interactive effect of family structure (birth order, sibling sex-ratio and number of siblings) and parenthood status on these preferences. Based on a group of 1304 heterosexual men, we have found that preference for feminine faces was not only influenced by sibling age and sex, but also that fatherhood modulated this preference. Men with sisters had a weaker preference for femininity than men with brothers, highlighting a possible effect of a negative imprinting-like mechanism. What is more, fatherhood increased strongly the preference for facial femininity. Finally, for fathers with younger sisters only, the more the age difference increased between them, the more femininity preference increased. Overall our findings bring new insight into how early-acquired experience at the individual level may determine face preference in adulthood, and what is more, how these preferences are flexible and potentially dependent on parenthood status in adult men.
面部是多种生理和心理特征的重要线索。人类对面部夸张的性别典型特征（男性气质或女性气质）的偏好取决于多种因素，并且个体间差异很大。为了更深入地了解男性对面部女性气质偏好背后的机制，我们测试了家庭结构（出生顺序、兄弟姐妹性别比例和兄弟姐妹数量）和为人父母状况对这些偏好的交互作用。基于一组1304名异性恋男性，我们发现对面部女性气质的偏好不仅受到兄弟姐妹年龄和性别的影响，而且为人父也会调节这种偏好。有姐妹的男性比有兄弟的男性对女性气质的偏好更弱，这凸显了一种类似负面印记机制的可能影响。此外，为人父会大大增加对面部女性气质的偏好。最后，对于只有妹妹的父亲来说，他们与妹妹的年龄差越大，对女性气质的偏好就越强。总体而言，我们的研究结果为个体层面早期获得的经历如何决定成年后的面部偏好带来了新的见解，而且还揭示了这些偏好在成年男性中是如何具有灵活性且可能取决于为人父母状况的。
