ArticleScientific reports2021
How and why patterns of sexual dimorphism in human faces vary across the world.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Self-reported aggressiveness does not follow facial masculinization in diverse South Asian populations.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Measuring sexual dimorphism in human faces.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- How Sex Shapes Facial Morphology in Adults: A 3D Geometric Morphometric Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Racial Dysmorphisms of the Ear Among the Tanzanian and Indian Populations: A Cross-Sectional Study.Cureus · 2026Article
- Self-reported social media use does not affect cross-cultural consensus in first impressions.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026Article
- Three-dimensional facial volumetric changes in transgender individuals induced by gender-affirming hormone therapy: a stereophotogrammetric assessment.Clinical oral investigations · 2025Observational
- An integrated multi-omic natural history study of human development, sexual dimorphism, and the effects of trisomy 21.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The Apemen Faces Database (ApeFD).Scientific data · 2025Article
- Interplay of polymorphisms in sex hormone receptors and facial sexual differentiation in shaping prosocial behavior.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Physical Strength Is Not Associated With Facial Sexual Dimorphism and Asymmetry in Either Czechs or Cameroonians.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Distortions of lip size bias perceived facial attractiveness.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Three-Dimensional Geometric Morphometric Characterization of Facial Sexual Dimorphism in Juveniles.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Epigenetic remodeling by sex hormone receptors and implications for gender affirming hormone therapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Hemifacial microsomia: a scoping review on progressive facial asymmetry due to mandibular deformity.Oral and maxillofacial surgery · 2024Article
- Sexual Dimorphism: The Interrelation of Shape and Color.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Sex classification of 3D skull images using deep neural networks.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Mandibular and dental measurements for sex determination using machine learning.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Cross-cultural perception of strength, attractiveness, aggressiveness and helpfulness of Maasai male faces calibrated to handgrip strength.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The Appropriateness of Medical Devices Is Strongly Influenced by Sex and Gender.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Artificial intelligence model for predicting sexual dimorphism through the hyoid bone in adult patients.PloS one · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 8 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sexual selection, including mate choice and intrasexual competition, is responsible for the evolution of some of the most elaborated and sexually dimorphic traits in animals. Although there is sexual dimorphism in the shape of human faces, it is not clear whether this is similarly due to mate choice, or whether mate choice affects only part of the facial shape difference between men and women. Here we explore these questions by investigating patterns of both facial shape and facial preference across a diverse set of human populations. We find evidence that human populations vary substantially and unexpectedly in both the magnitude and direction of facial sexually dimorphic traits. In particular, European and South American populations display larger levels of facial sexual dimorphism than African populations. Neither cross-cultural differences in facial shape variation, sex differences in body height, nor differing preferences for facial femininity and masculinity across countries, explain the observed patterns of facial dimorphism. Altogether, the association between sexual shape dimorphism and attractiveness is moderate for women and weak (or absent) for men. Analysis that distinguishes between allometric and non-allometric components reveals that non-allometric facial dimorphism is preferred in women's faces but not in faces of men. This might be due to different regimes of ongoing sexual selection acting on men, such as stronger intersexual selection for body height and more intense intrasexual physical competition, compared with women.
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