Facial symmetry
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Facial symmetry is one of a number of traits associated with health, physical attractiveness and beauty of a person or animal. It is also hypothesized as a factor in interpersonal attraction.
Health and physical attractiveness
It has been proposed by an undisclosed source that facial bilateral symmetry is a universal determinant of health and therefore of beauty. Facial asymmetries and minor physical anomalies begin to appear early in embryonic development, mainly the first trimester of pregnancy, and can be a sign of instability during this growth. Fluctuating asymmetry (random differences between two sides, as opposed to the deliberate natural asymmetry in some animals) develop throughout the lifespan of the individual and is a sign of the phenotype being subjected to some levels of stress. The ability to cope with these pressures is partly reflected in the levels of symmetry.A higher degree of symmetry indicates a better coping system for environmental factors. While the visible signs of this may not be particularly apparent, it is thought that they have at least a subconscious effect on people's perception of their beauty.
Plastic surgeon Stephen Marquardt has developed a highly symmetric beauty mask marked with various outlines of facial features based on the golden ratio (1:1.618). He has published a study which claims to find that people of either sex who are considered "attractive" in various cultures have facial features which fit the mask.
Facial symmetry is neither the only trait nor is it necessarily the most important trait of what the public subjectively considers attractive. The competing aesthetic theory of wabi sabi posits the existence of beauty through imperfection.
Interpersonal attraction
Suzi Malin, a British portrait painter, wrote Love at First Sight (ISBN 075660401X) to examine the relationships of 50 celebrity couples. She speculates that there are three aspects of facial symmetry which attract one person to another: echoism, harmonism and prima copulism. Echoism is the similarity of one or more facial features, particularly the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth. Harmonism is a similarity in facial proportions, usually involving the size of features and the distance between them. Prima copulism is an attraction to another person based on them having similar features to someone with whom they formed a strong interpersonal bond with at an early age, usually a mother or father.Historical perspective
This normative study of the bone structure of the face and skull places it in the intellectual traditions of Phrenology and Craniometry. These earlier traditions ambitiously sought to assess character, personality, or intelligence from a person's bone structure. By contrast, the current study primarily focuses on aesthetic concerns that, if misapplied, would not result in infringement of a person's legal or civil rights.Since the 1990s, descriptive studies of human facial bone structure underlie the practice of face recognition systems using software for security applications. The reliability of these systems has been brought into question.
References
- Edler, RJ. June 2001. "[Background Considerations to Facial Aesthetics]". "Sexual reproduction and parasite resistance" section retrieved 31 May 2005.
- Fink, B; Manning, JT; Neave, N; Grammer, K. "[Second to fourth digit ratio and facial asymmetry]". "Introduction" section retrieved 31 May 2005.
External links
- [FaceResearch] – Up-to-date scientific research and online studies on facial symmetry
- [Symmeter] – a web-based application that measures symmetry
- "[Madonna & Guy Echoism]" – a look at Suzi Malin's interpretation of the facial symmetry between Madonna and Guy Ritchie.
- "[Teeth, Beauty, Biology, and Health]" – a look at facial symmetry and attractiveness.
- "[Appearance of symmetry, beauty, and health in human faces]".
- "[Doctor May Have Beauty's Number]" – a look at Marquardt's "Golden Ratio" at [tlc.discovery.com].
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