There research on the perception of facial attractiveness has shown a recurring and partly counterintuitive result in recent decades: female faces tend to receive higher ratings on average than male faces, regardless of the gender of the evaluator. This phenomenon has been discussed in the literature as a possible form of “gender attractiveness gap”or a systematic gap in the aesthetic evaluation between male and female faces.
The most recent studies, such as the one published on Proceedings of the Royal Society, by Eugen Wassiliwizky and the research team of Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Germany, confirm the existence of this gap whereby “female faces are often judged more attractive than male faces, regardless of any other factor”. The average female face is considered according to this meta-analysis about 60% more attractive of male faces. «What is most surprising, – said the researcher, – is that the women themselves they give higher scores to other women and lower than men.”
Although there is no single definition of the term, numerous studies in social and evolutionary psychology have documented stable asymmetries in attractiveness judgments, suggesting that the phenomenon is the result of a complex interaction between biological, cognitive and sociocultural factors.
Experimental evidence on the gender attractiveness gap
The studies that have investigated this phenomenon mainly use the paradigm of the “facial attractiveness rating task”. In these experiments, developed starting from social and cognitive psychologyfaces controlled for variables such as age, lighting, expression and symmetry are shown.
The goal is to isolate it as much as possible “pure” perceptual component of attractiveness. In research such as that summarized by Langlois (2000) and subsequently by the meta-analysis on facial judgment of Weeden and Sabini (2005)it clearly emerged that female faces obtained higher scores on average than male faces.
In many cases, even when they equalized objective parameters such as symmetry or image qualityfemale faces continued to receive higher average scores. This has led some researchers to hypothesize that not only physical characteristics come into play, but also learned perceptual patterns and internalized social expectations.
Evolutionary hypotheses: facial signals and perception of fitness
One of the main theoretical explanations derives from evolutionary psychology. Second DM Buss (Sex Differences in Human Mate Preferences: Evolutionary Hypotheses Tested in 37 Cultures, 1989) and subsequent theoretical developments, the perception of attractiveness would be linked to the ability to infer signals of biological fitness.
Treats like facial symmetry, homogeneous skin and regular proportions have been associated with indirect indicators of health and development.
Experimental studies of Little, Jones and DeBruine (2011) have shown that the preference for certain facial features varies depending on the context, but some elements remain constant across cultures.
THE female faces tend to present on average characteristics perceived as more “neotenic” (larger eyes, less pronounced jaw, softer features), factors that according to studies by Guthrie, like for example Body Hot Spots: The Anatomy of Human Social Organs and Behavior (1992), and subsequent research could activate evolutionarily rooted preferences towards signs of youth and non-threatening vulnerability.
Studies of neuroaestheticslike those of Aharon, of which the largest known is called: “Beautiful Faces Have Variable Reward Value: fMRI and Behavioral Evidence” (2001)further showed that the perception of attractive faces activates the dopaminergic reward system, particularly the ventral striatum, suggesting that beauty processing has a measurable neurobiological basis.
Perception of the beauty of female faces and sociocultural construction
Next to biological explanations, sociological literature underlines the role of cultural construction of attractiveness. The theory of objectification of Fredrickson & Roberts (1997) proposes that in Western societies the female body is subjected to a systematic process of aesthetic evaluation, which influences both external perception and self-perception.
Content analysis of media and advertising, such as those of Edge (1993) and subsequently of Hatton and Trautner (Equal Opportunity Objectification? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the Cover of Rolling Stone, 2011), show a highly asymmetric representation: women are represented disproportionately in aesthetic terms compared to men, who are instead associated with status, competence and agency.
This cultural imbalance contributes to making the female face a “visual object” more frequently evaluated and internalized as a standard of beauty.
Interaction between biology, culture and perceptual context
The most recent research tends to overcome the dichotomy between biological and cultural explanations, proposing integrated models. Second Perrett and the results of his research published in Effects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness (1998) and subsequent works on perceptual adaptivity, the perception of attractiveness it is a dynamic process that combines evolutionary predispositions with social learning and repeated exposure.
In this framework, the gender attractiveness gap is not interpreted as one “intrinsic” difference between men and womenbut as the result of relatively stable components, but its intensity varies significantly between populations and media contexts.
In conclusion, current scientific literature does not support the idea of an intrinsic aesthetic superiority of one gender over the other, but rather highlights how facial beauty is a complex construct, emerging from the interaction between brain, evolution and culture.
Latest findings: the 2026 meta-analysis
In May 2026 it was published on Proceedings of the Royal Society a new study by Eugen Wassiliwizky and the research team of Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Germany, which analyzed a data set from 52 studies whose data came from 76 countrieswith over 1.5 million ratings of 17 thousand faces, carried out by almost 30 thousand raters. The result? The average female face is considered about 60% more attractive of male faces, even by women.
Although this discrepancy is more marked in Western countries and undergoes slight variations depending on sexual orientation, it manifests itself transversally between heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual individuals. This difference, however, disappears completely when participants are asked to evaluate your appearance. This phenomenon is partly explained by the different morphology of the face: male features tend to be more square, while female ones are softer and rounded, an aesthetic characteristic that is generally more pleasing to both sexes.
Although the research does not identify the exact cause of this clear predilection for feminine traits, researcher Wassiliwizky hypothesizes that the cultural component alone is not sufficient to justify it, as it is a widespread trend on a global scale. The scholar suggests proceeding with caution in interpretations, but does not exclude that sexual selection has acted for millennia shaping women’s faces in this sense. A further hypothesis is that the roundness of the features generates greater attraction because it somehow recalls the physiognomy of childrenarousing a natural sense of sweetness.
