Facial attractiveness judgements reflect learning of parental age characteristics

Mate preferences are shaped by infant experience of parental characteristics in a wide variety of species. Similar processes in humans may lead to physical similarity between parents and mates, yet this possibility has received little attention. The age of parents is one salient physical characteris...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2002-05, Vol.269 (1494), p.873-880
Main Authors: Perrett, D., Penton-Voak, I. S., Little, A. C., Tiddeman, B. P., Burt, D. M., Schmidt, N., Oxley, R., Kinloch, N., Barrett, L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adults
Age Factors
Age Preference
Average age
Early Visual Experience
Face
Facial Attractiveness
Female
Homo sapiens
Humans
Infants
Judgment
Learning
Male
Mating behavior
Men
Middle Aged
Parental Characteristics
Parents
Questionnaires
Reproduction
Sexual Behavior - psychology
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Summary:Mate preferences are shaped by infant experience of parental characteristics in a wide variety of species. Similar processes in humans may lead to physical similarity between parents and mates, yet this possibility has received little attention. The age of parents is one salient physical characteristic that offspring may attend to. The current study used computer-graphic faces to examine how preferences for age in faces were influenced by parental age. We found that women born to 'old' parents (over 30) were less impressed by youth, and more attracted to age cues in male faces than women with 'young' parents (under 30). For men, preferences for female faces were influenced by their mother's age and not their father's age, but only for long-term relationships. These data indicate that judgements of facial attractiveness in humans reflect the learning of parental characteristics.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2002.1971