The Correlation Between Facial Symmetry and Attractiveness

Overview

Objectives/Goals My major goal for this project was to see if there is a relationship between facial symmetry and attractiveness. Methods/Materials I started my experiment by using a digital camera, and photographing thirty random people of different ages and nationalities. I then downloaded them into the computer, using the program Adobe Photoshop 5.5. I inverted the right side of the face and superimposed it over the left, and vice versa. I ended up with three seprate pictures: one of the original face, both right sides, and both left sides . Looking at all three pictures I catagroized the pictures into "high degree of symmetry", "medium degree" and "low degree". I constructed my survey, based on this information, and pasted the thirty original faces onto a poster board in a random order. If the picture had a "one" next to it, then I considered the face very symmertical, if it had a "two" on it, then the person had a medium degree of symmetry, and if it had a "three" on it, then the person had a low degree of symmetry. The people that I tested did not know what the numbers meant, and this was only for my information. I then had thirty random people take part in my survey. I showed the pictures to each subject, and asked them who they thought was the most attractive. On my data sheet, I recorded the person's age, and the number (one, two, or three) of the person's face that they chosen. Results After recording all of the votes taken about the best looking face, I counted seventeen people (fifty seven percent) that chose a face from category one. Category one was the group of most symmetrical faces. Eight people chose the most attractive person from category two, and five from category three. Conclusions/Discussion My results support my hypotheisis, because fifty-seven percent of the people I surveyed voted the more symmetrical, the more attractive a face was. Symmetry and beauty are both subjective, and people may have a different opinion about the attractiveness of the same person. How this benefits people today, is the fact that surgeons in the field of plastic surgery must realize that symmetry can have an impact on attractiveness. Through my experience, I realized that science does not have to be proven by math, or by equations, science can be the study of human opinion. I have also learned that beauty is different in everyone's eyes.

Competition history

• CSEF 2003 Behavioral Sciences · Entry S0324

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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