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The bio-logic of facial geometry

Nature volume 397, pages 661–662 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

The final paragraph of the Letter by Perrett et al.1, on the effects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness, remarks that “preferences would encourage a youthful, neotenous appearance in the species generally”. But this conflicts with the semantics of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ they use to construct their argument. Brennan's caricatures of Ronald Reagan2 also hint at this conflict. We have examined the logic of this argument and suggest that biological data might strengthen inferences made by Perrett et al.1.

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Figure 1: An extrapolation beyond human along a shape continuum defined by eight feature points on gorilla, Paranthropus, Neanderthal and human skulls.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Project in Geometry and Physics, Department of Mathematics 0112,

    David A. Meyer

  2. Department of Biology 0366, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, USA

    Melanie W Quong

Authors
  1. David A. Meyer
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  2. Melanie W Quong
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Meyer, D., Quong, M. The bio-logic of facial geometry. Nature 397, 661–662 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/17720

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