ArticleScientific reports2017
Facial appearance reveals immunity in African men.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Real-time and digital remote nutritional assessment framework with the use of smartphone-enabled facial morphometrics and machine learning- a proof of concept.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Observational
- Facial Appearance and Markers of Cardiometabolic Risk in Healthy Adult Men.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- Violence exposure is associated with preference for masculine faces: evidence from Senegal.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Self-perceived Mate Value is Predicted by Biological and self-reported Indices of Health in Young Adults.Adaptive human behavior and physiology · 2023Article
- Attractive and healthy-looking male faces do not show higher immunoreactivity.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Facial and body sexual dimorphism are not interconnected in the Maasai.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2022Article
- Attractiveness Evaluation and Identity of Self-face: The Effect of Sexual Dimorphism.i-Perception · 2021Article
- Facial appearance and metabolic health biomarkers in women.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Women's socioeconomic position in ontogeny is associated with improved immune function and lower stress, but not with height.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Identification of the Facial Features of Patients With Cancer: A Deep Learning-Based Pilot Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Article
- A multivariate analysis of women's mating strategies and sexual selection on men's facial morphology.Royal Society open science · 2020Article
- Skin Color Cues to Human Health: Carotenoids, Aerobic Fitness, and Body Fat.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Masculinity and immune system efficacy in men.PloS one · 2020Article
- Fear of Violence among Colombian Women Is Associated with Reduced Preferences for High-BMI Men.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2019Article
- Women's preferences for men's facial masculinity are strongest under favorable ecological conditions.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- The Influence of Body Composition Effects on Male Facial Masculinity and Attractiveness.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
- Facial Adiposity, Attractiveness, and Health: A Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Review
- Facial Shape Analysis Identifies Valid Cues to Aspects of Physiological Health in Caucasian, Asian, and African Populations.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- Immunoactivation Affects Perceived Body Odor and Facial but Not Vocal Attractiveness.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Facial appearance is thought to indicate immunity in humans, but very few studies have tested this relationship directly. The aim of this study was to test the relationship between direct measures of immunity, perceived facial health and attractiveness, and facial cues in African men. We show that men with a stronger cytokine response are considered significantly more attractive and healthy. Men with more masculine, heavier facial features (i.e. muscular appearance) have a significantly higher cytokine response and appear significantly healthier and more attractive, while men with a yellower, lighter, "carotenoid" skin colour, have a marginally higher immune response and are also considered significantly more healthy and attractive. In contrast, more symmetrical, skinnier looking men appeared more attractive and healthier, but did not have a stronger cytokine response. These findings also shed new light on the "androgen-mediated" traits proposed by the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis (ICHH) and we propose that facial muscularity serves as a better estimate of an "androgen-mediated" trait than facial masculinity. Finally, we build on previous evidence to show that men's facial features do indeed reveal aspects of immunity, even better than more traditional measures of health, such as body mass index (BMI).
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.