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Much to the chagrin of macho movie star men, a recent study reveals that men's faces are generally more attractive when they're made slightly more feminine. Starting
with average faces, computer graphics were used to vary the facial structure to make the face slightly more masculine or more feminine.
Masculinizing a photo, for example, would enlarge the
jawbone, while feminizing it would enlarge the lips or alter the forehead.
As expected, both men and women preferred women with a slightly "feminized" face. But in a surprising finding
both men and women also preferred a slight "feminizing" of the men's faces. So the most attractive male faces looked slightly more feminine than the average male face.
And while
it's clear that people don't base mating decisions on faces alone (the body, personality, and for all we know even the bank account could also play their parts) the finding does seem a slap at
the notoriously fragile male ego.
As our ancestors evolved, the desire of females to attract a male with good looks became more important in the mating stakes than the ability to fight off male
rivals, suggests a new study.
Broader faces with prominent cheekbones, not unlike those of contemporary movie stars including Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Brad Pitt and Viggo Mortensen, were preferred by females. Just ask Angelina Jolie.
So because over the centuries women more and more preferred handsome men to more macho men and that's why there are so many very cute looking guys today and our photo albums of male faces show this evidence.
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