SynthesisPloS one2015
Evidence from Meta-Analyses of the Facial Width-to-Height Ratio as an Evolved Cue of Threat.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed.
- The influence of income and testosterone on the validity of facial width-to-height ratio as a biomarker for dominance.PloS one · 2018Trial
- Self-reported aggressiveness does not follow facial masculinization in diverse South Asian populations.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Do We Look at a Threatening Person's Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2026Article
- Interplay of polymorphisms in sex hormone receptors and facial sexual differentiation in shaping prosocial behavior.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Comparative Context of Hard-Tissue Sexual Dimorphism in Early Hominins: Implications for Alpha Taxonomy.Evolutionary anthropology · 2025Review
- Facial dominance overrides gender in children's stereotypes about intelligence.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Two "faces" of e-sports players: the relationship between facial width-to-height ratio and aggressive behavior in the virtual world.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Relative facial width, and its association with canine size and body mass among chimpanzees and bonobos: Implications for understanding facial width-to-height ratio expression among human populations.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025Article
- Cues of trait dominance elicit inferences of psychological ownership.The British journal of social psychology · 2025Article
- The role of facial cues in signalling cooperativeness is limited and nuanced.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Better-than-chance prediction of cooperative behaviour from first and second impressions.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Article
- Toddlers' sensitivity to dominance traits from faces.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The role of hormones in attraction and visual attention to facial masculinity.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Does the primate face cue personality?Personality neuroscience · 2023Article
- Trust in the police and affective evaluation of police faces: a preliminary study.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Preference for leaders with high and low facial width-to-height ratios: moderating roles of political ideology and voting context.Current issues in personality psychology · 2023Article
- Changes in Cat Facial Morphology Are Related to Interaction with Humans.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Facial width-to-height ratio predicts fighting success: A direct replication and extension of Zilioli et al. (2014).Aggressive behavior · 2022Article
- Human third-party observers accurately track fighting skill and vigour along their unique paths to victory.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Tracking sexual dimorphism of facial width-to-height ratio across the lifespan: implications for perceived aggressiveness.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The facial width-to-height ratio (FWHR) is the width of the face divided by the height of the upper face. There is mixed evidence for the hypothesis that the FWHR is a cue of threat and dominance in the human face. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses of all peer-reviewed studies (and 2 unpublished studies) to estimate the magnitude of the sex difference in the FWHR, and the magnitude of the relationship between the FWHR and threatening and dominant behaviours and perceptions. Studies were eligible for inclusion if the authors reported an analysis involving the FWHR. Our analyses revealed that the FWHR was larger in men than in women (d = .11, n = 10,853), cued judgements of masculinity in men (r = .35, n of faces = 487; n of observers = 339), and was related to body mass index (r = .31, n = 2,506). Further, the FWHR predicted both threat behaviour in men (r = .16, n = 4,603) and dominance behaviour in both sexes (r = .12, n = 948) across a variety of indices. Individuals with larger FWHRs were judged by observers as more threatening (r = .46, n of faces = 1,691; n of observers = 2,076) and more dominant (r = .20, n of faces = 603; n of observers = 236) than those with smaller FWHRs. Individuals with larger FWHRs were also judged as less attractive (r = -.26, n of faces = 721; n of observers = 335), especially when women made the judgements. These findings provide some support for the hypothesis that the FWHR is part of an evolved cueing system of intra-sexual threat and dominance in men. A limitation of the meta-analyses on perceptions of threat and dominance were the low number of stimuli involving female and older adult faces.
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