How much femininity/masculinity people find attractive depends on their sexual orientation & culture

What is it about?

How feminine or masculine faces are affects how attractive others find them. But not all people have the same preferences for femininity vs. masculinity. Our research tested how people’s culture (British, Japanese) and sexual orientation (bisexual, gay/lesbian, heterosexual) predicted how much femininity or masculinity people found most attractive in women's and men's faces. We found that multiple aspects of a person’s identity (here, their culture and sexual orientation) simultaneously influence what they find most attractive in others’ faces—people of different cultures and sexual orientations showed different preferences.

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Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Most research on attraction has focused on what White heterosexual people find attractive in White faces. This narrow focus limits the conclusions that researchers can make about attractiveness preferences, because people of different identities have been shown to have different preferences. For example, previous research showed that what people find attractive varies by culture (for example, Japanese people prefer more feminine faces than British people) and by sexual orientation (for example, gay/lesbian and heterosexual people have different preferences). Here, to gain a more comprehensive understanding, we tested how attractiveness judgments varied by *both* culture and sexual orientation simultaneously, and also asked people to make judgments of both East Asian and White women's and men's faces. Importantly, we included not only hetereosexual and gay/lesbian people in this research, but also bisexual people - who are often excluded from research on attraction and relationships. Our findings not only show that preferences for femininity vs. masculinity in faces differ by both culture and sexual orientation, but we also provide the first evidence of what bisexual women and men find attractive in faces.