Elsevier

Evolution and Human Behavior

Volume 35, Issue 5, September 2014, Pages 376-383
Evolution and Human Behavior

Original Article
Developmental changes in children's facial preferences

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.05.002Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

Facial averageness, symmetry, health, and femininity are positively associated with adults' judgements of attractiveness, but little is known about the age at which preferences for individual facial traits develop. We investigated preferences for these facial traits and global attractiveness in 4- to 17-year-olds (N = 346). All age groups showed preferences for globally attractive faces. Preferences for averageness, symmetry, and health did not emerge until middle childhood and experienced apparent disruption or stasis around age 10- to 14-years; femininity was not preferred until early adulthood, and this preference was seen only in girls. Children's pubertal development was not clearly related to any facial preferences, but the results are consistent with the suggestion that early adrenal hormone release may play an activating role in mate preferences, while other constraints may delay further increases in preferences during later puberty.

Keywords

Facial attraction
Averageness
Symmetry
Health
Puberty

Cited by (0)

Author's note: the authors wish to thank A Gray, R Page, J Sofat, K Benson and L Watts for the assistance in pilot work, and also the graduate students and teachers, in particular E McLaughlin, who assisted in data collection. This research was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council grant to LGB and EM (ES/H034773/1). Underlying data can be accessed through the UK Data Service archive.