Perrett D I, Lee K J, Penton-Voak I, Rowland D, Yoshikawa S, Burt D M, Henzi S P, Castles D L, Akamatsu S
School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, Fife, UK.
Nature. 1998 Aug 27;394(6696):884-7. doi: 10.1038/29772.
Testosterone-dependent secondary sexual characteristics in males may signal immunological competence and are sexually selected for in several species. In humans, oestrogen-dependent characteristics of the female body correlate with health and reproductive fitness and are found attractive. Enhancing the sexual dimorphism of human faces should raise attractiveness by enhancing sex-hormone-related cues to youth and fertility in females, and to dominance and immunocompetence in males. Here we report the results of asking subjects to choose the most attractive faces from continua that enhanced or diminished differences between the average shape of female and male faces. As predicted, subjects preferred feminized to average shapes of a female face. This preference applied across UK and Japanese populations but was stronger for within-population judgements, which indicates that attractiveness cues are learned. Subjects preferred feminized to average or masculinized shapes of a male face. Enhancing masculine facial characteristics increased both perceived dominance and negative attributions (for example, coldness or dishonesty) relevant to relationships and paternal investment. These results indicate a selection pressure that limits sexual dimorphism and encourages neoteny in humans.
男性体内依赖睾酮的第二性征可能标志着免疫能力，并且在多个物种中是通过性选择进化而来的。在人类中，女性身体依赖雌激素的特征与健康和生殖适应性相关，且被认为具有吸引力。增强人类面部的性别二态性，应能通过强化与性激素相关的线索，提升女性的年轻和生育能力，以及男性的主导地位和免疫能力，从而提高面部吸引力。在此，我们报告了一项实验结果，即让受试者从一系列增强或缩小了男女平均面部形状差异的面部连续体中，选择最具吸引力的面孔。正如预期的那样，受试者更喜欢女性化而非平均形状的女性面孔。这种偏好适用于英国和日本人群，但在群体内部判断中更为强烈，这表明吸引力线索是后天习得的。受试者更喜欢女性化而非平均形状或男性化的男性面孔。增强男性面部特征会增加与人际关系和父性投资相关的感知主导地位和负面属性（如冷漠或不诚实）。这些结果表明存在一种选择压力，它限制了人类的性别二态性并促进了幼态持续。
