Evolution & Human Behavior
Volume 27, Issue 2 , Pages 131-144 , March 2006

Facial sexual dimorphism, developmental stability, and susceptibility to disease in men and women

  • Randy Thornhill

      Affiliations

    • Department of Biology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author.
  • ,
  • Steven W. Gangestad

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA

Received 23 March 2005 ,Revised 13 June 2005

References 

  1. Andersson M. Sexual selection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 1994;
  2. Bardin CW, Catterall JF. Testosterone: A major determinant of extragenital sexual dimorphism. Science. 1981;211:1285–1294
  3. Block J. The Q-sort method in personality assessment and psychiatric research. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas; 1961;
  4. Daly M, Wilson M. Sex, evolution, and behavior. 2nd ed.. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth; 1983;
  5. Enlow DH. Facial Growth. 3rd ed.. Philadelphia: Harcourt Brace; 1990;
  6. Feingold A. Good-looking people are not what we think. Psychological Bulletin. 1992;111:304–341
  7. Folstad I, Karter A. Parasites, bright males, and the immunocompetence handicap. American Naturalist. 1992;139:938–946
  8. Gangestad SW, Thornhill R. The evolutionary psychology of extra-pair sex: The role of fluctuating asymmetry. Evolution and Human Behavior. 1997;18:69–88
  9. Gangestad SW, Thornhill R. Individual differences in developmental precision and fluctuating asymmetry: A model and its implications. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 1999;12:402–416
  10. Gangestad SW, Thornhill R. Facial masculinity and fluctuating asymmetry. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2003;24:231–241
  11. Getty T. Signaling health versus parasites. American Naturalist. 2002;159:363–371
  12. Grammer K, Thornhill R. Human (Homo sapiens) facial attractiveness and sexual selection: The role of symmetry and averageness. Journal of Comparative Psychology. 1994;108:233–242
  13. Hurtado AM, Hurtado I, Hill K, Gangestad SW. Fluctuating asymmetry and immune status: Implications for intrauterine growth in a population of South American natives. In: Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Tampa, FL. 2004;
  14. Jennions MD, Møller AP, Petrie M. Sexually selected traits and adult survival: A meta-analysis. Quarterly Review of Biology. 2001;76:3–36
  15. Johnston VS, Hagel R, Franklin M, Fink B, Grammer K. Male facial attractiveness: Evidence for hormone-mediated adaptive design. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2001;22:251–267
  16. Jones BC, Little AC, Penton-Voak IS, Tiddeman BP, Burt DM, Perrett DI. Measured facial asymmetry and perceptual judgments of attractiveness and health. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2001;22:417–429
  17. Kalick SM, Zebrowitz LA, Langlois JH, Johnson RM. Does human facial attractiveness honestly advertise health? Longitudinal data on an evolutionary question. Psychological Science. 1998;9:8–13
  18. Koehler N, Simmons LW, Rhodes G, Peters M. The relationship between sexual dimorphism in human faces and fluctuating asymmetry. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. 2004;271:S233–S236
  19. Kokko H, Brooks R, McNamara JM, Houston AI. The sexual selection continuum. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. 2002;269:1331–1340
  20. Langlois JH, Kalakanis L, Rubenstein AJ, Larson A, Hallam M, Smoot M. Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin. 2000;126:390–423
  21. Lanning K. Factor analysis of observer ratings on the California Adult Q-Set. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1994;67:151–160
  22. Mazur A, Booth A. Testosterone and dominance in men. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 1998;21:353–380
  23. McDade TW. Life history, maintenance, and the early origins of immune function. American Journal of Human Biology. 2005;17:81–94
  24. Møller AP, Christie P, Lux E. Parasitism, host immune function, and sexual selection. Quarterly Review of Biology. 1999;74:3–74
  25. Møller AP, Swaddle JP. Asymmetry, developmental stability, and evolution. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 1997;
  26. Mueller U, Mazur A. Facial dominance in Homo sapiens as honest signaling of male quality. Behavioral Ecology. 1997;8:569–579
  27. Penton-Voak IS, Jacobson A, Trivers R. Populational differences in attractiveness judgments of male and female faces: Comparing British and Jamaican samples. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2004;25:355–370
  28. Penton-Voak IS, Jones BC, Little AC, Baker S, Tiddeman B, Burt DM, et al. Symmetry, sexual dimorphism in facial proportions and male facial attractiveness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. 2001;268:1617–1623
  29. Penton-Voak IS, Perrett DI. Female preference for male faces changes cyclically: Further evidence. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2000;21:39–48
  30. Penton-Voak IS, Perrett DI, Castles DL, Kobayashi T, Burt DM, Murray LK, et al. Female preference for male faces changes cyclically. Nature. 1999;399:741–742
  31. Rhodes G, Chan J, Zebrowitz LA, Simmons LW. Does sexual dimorphism in human faces signal health?. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. 2003;270:S93–S95
  32. Rhodes G, Sebrowitz LA, Clark A, Kalick SM, Hightower A, McKay R. Do facial averageness and symmetry signal health?. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2001;22:31–46
  33. Rice WR, Gaines SD. “Heads I win, tails you lose”: Testing directional alternative hypotheses in ecological and evolutionary research. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 1994;9:235–237
  34. Roberts ML, Buchanan KL, Evans MR. Testing the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis: A review of the evidence. Animal Behaviour. 2004;68:227–239
  35. Scheib JE, Gangestad SW, Thornhill R. Facial attractiveness, symmetry and cues of good genes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. 1999;266:1913–1917
  36. Singh D. Adaptive significance of female physical attractiveness: Role of waist-to-hip ratio. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1993;65:293–307
  37. Singh D. Female health, attractiveness and desirability for relationships: Role of breast asymmetry and waist-to-hip ratio. Ethology and Sociobiology. 1995;16:465–481
  38. Swaddle JP, Reierson GW. Testosterone increases perceived dominance but not attractiveness of human males. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. 2002;269:2285–2289
  39. Tellegen, A. (1982). Brief manual for the differential personality questionnaire. Unpublished manuscript. Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota.
  40. Thornhill R, Gangestad SW. Human facial beauty: Averageness, symmetry and parasite resistance. Human Nature. 1993;4:237–269
  41. Thornhill R, Gangestad SW. Facial attractiveness. Trends in Cognitive Science. 1999;3:452–460
  42. Thornhill R, Gangestad SW. The scent of symmetry: A human sex pheromone that signals fitness?. Evolution and Human Behavior. 1999;20:175–201
  43. Thornhill R, Grammer K. The body and face of woman: One ornament that signals fitness?. Evolution and Human Behavior. 1999;20:105–120
  44. Thornhill R, Møller AP. Developmental stability, disease and medicine. Biological Reviews. 1997;72:497–528
  45. Watson D, Pennebaker JW. Health complaints, health, and distress: Exploring the central role of negative affectivity. Psychological Review. 1989;96:234–254
  46. Waynforth D. Fluctuating asymmetry and human male life history, traits in rural Belize. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. 1998;265:1497–1501
  47. Williams GC. Adaptation and natural selection: A critique of some current evolutionary thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 1966;
  48. Zahavi A, Zahavi A. The handicap principle: A missing piece of Darwin's puzzle. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1997;
  49. Zebrowitz LA, Rhodes G. Sensitivity to “bad genes” and the anomolous face overgeneralization effect: Cue validity, cue utilization, and accuracy in judging intelligence and health. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2004;28:167–185

PII: S1090-5138(05)00052-8

doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.06.001

Evolution & Human Behavior
Volume 27, Issue 2 , Pages 131-144 , March 2006