ArticlePloS one2021
Cross-cultural perception of female facial appearance: A multi-ethnic and multi-centre study.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05945472 (Mental Beauty, the Unexplored Impact of Cosmetics on Mood, Personal Self-esteem, Perceived Stress, Mindfulness and Psychological Well-being.), which is not on this map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
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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.
Mental Beauty, the Unexplored Impact of Cosmetics on Mood, Personal Self-esteem, Perceived Stress, Mindfulness and Psychological Well-being.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Perceptions of female age, health and attractiveness vary with systematic hair manipulations.International journal of cosmetic science · 2026Article
- Self-reported social media use does not affect cross-cultural consensus in first impressions.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026Article
- Evaluation of lactic acid ferment lysate for the management of oily skin: impact on sebum, hydration, and microbiota.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Causes and intervention strategies for appearance anxiety: a critical review of recent advances.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Perceptions of Female Abdominal Muscle Definition: A Crowdsourced Analysis of Contour Preferences.Aesthetic surgery journal. Open forum · 2026Article
- The effect of emotional expression on age estimates is modulated by face age and participant age.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Effects of under-eye skin and crow's feet on perceived facial appearance in women of five ethnic groups.International journal of cosmetic science · 2025Article
- The Influence of Anteroposterior Head Inclination on the Perceived Consonance of the Smile Arc and Lower Lip Curvature on Photographs: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Cultural Determinants of Body Image: What About the Menopausal Transition?Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Clinical vs. chronological skin age: exploring determinants and stratum corneum protein markers of differential skin ageing in 351 healthy women.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Cross-cultural perception of strength, attractiveness, aggressiveness and helpfulness of Maasai male faces calibrated to handgrip strength.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Facial Beauty and the Correlation of Associated Attributes: An Empirical Aesthetic Database Study.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2024Article
- Perception of strength, attractiveness and aggressiveness of Maasai male faces calibrated to handgrip strength: Evidence from a European sample.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2023Article
- Using Artificial Intelligence to Quantify Sexual Dimorphism in Aesthetic Faces: Analysis of 100 Facial Points in 42 Caucasian Celebrities.Aesthetic surgery journal. Open forum · 2023Article
- Africans and Europeans differ in their facial perception of dominance and sex-typicality: a multidimensional Bayesian approach.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Differences between perceived age and chronological age in women: A multi-ethnic and multi-centre study.International journal of cosmetic science · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Humans extract and use information from the face in assessments of physical appearance. Previous research indicates high agreement about facial attractiveness within and between cultures. However, the use of a narrow age range for facial stimuli, limitations due to unidirectional cross-cultural comparisons, and technical challenges have prevented definitive conclusions about the universality of face perception. In the present study, we imaged the faces of women aged 20 to 69 years in five locations (China, France, India, Japan, and South Africa) and secured age, attractiveness, and health assessments on continuous scales (0-100) from female and male raters (20-66 years) within and across ethnicity. In total, 180 images (36 of each ethnicity) were assessed by 600 raters (120 of each ethnicity), recruited in study centres in the five locations. Linear mixed model analysis revealed main and interaction effects of assessor ethnicity, assessor gender, and photographed participant ("face") ethnicity on age, attractiveness, and health assessments. Thus, differences in judgments of female facial appearance depend on the ethnicity of the photographed person, the ethnicity of the assessor, and whether the assessor is female or male. Facial age assessments correlated negatively with attractiveness and health assessments. Collectively, these findings provide evidence of cross-cultural variation in assessments of age, and even more of attractiveness, and health, indicating plasticity in perception of female facial appearance across cultures, although the decline in attractiveness and health assessments with age is universally found.
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