The Universities of Regensburg and Rostock (Germany) have produced amazing studies using facial morphing software, combining the faces of many people, and creating prototypes of "attractive" and "unattractive" faces.
The face on the left is a prototype created by a computer representing an "attractive" female. The face on the right is the prototype for an "unattractive" female. The criteria found to make a female more attractive included:
Suntanned skin
Narrower nose
Darker, narrower eyebrows
Fuller lips
Thinner eyelids
Researchers then considered the idea of "babyfaceness". In this study, a prototype was morphed, adding progressively more "childlike" features. "Childlike" features included :
Large head
Large, curved forehead
Large, round eyes
Small, short nose
Round cheeks
Small chin
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| Above is the prototype of a woman morphed to be 50% "childlike" |
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| Above is a prototype morphed to be 20% "childlike" |
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| Above is the prototype of a woman with 100% "adult features" |
Less than 10% of participants found the 100% adult woman to be the most attractive of the group. The rest preferred women with 10-50% "childlike" features.
The simplest of the experiments done was to produce the "average" face.
On the left is the "average female" created using the features of 64 different women. On the right is the "average male" created using the faces of 32 different men.
