Human preferences for sexually dimorphic faces may be evolutionarily novel.

ABSTRACT: A large literature proposes that preferences for exaggerated sex typicality in human faces (masculinity/femininity) reflect a long evolutionary history of sexual and social selection. This proposal implies that dimorphism was important to judgments of attractiveness and personality in ancestral environments. It is difficult to evaluate, however, because most available data come from large-scale, industrialized, urban populations. Here, we report the results for 12 populations with very diverse levels of economic development. Surprisingly, preferences for exaggerated sex-specific traits are only found in the novel, highly developed environments. Similarly, perceptions that masculine males look aggressive increase strongly with development and, specifically, urbanization. These data challeng

SUBMITTER: Scott IM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4210032 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature