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FEMALE faces are more attractive even to women, a study found.
Results revealed a “gender attractiveness gap” that proves they really are the fairer sex.
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It could be because testosterone makes handsome male faces appear threatening.
Experts led by the Max Planck Institute in Germany analysed 52 previous studies including 1.5million face ratings by more than 28,500 people.
It was the biggest study of its kind and found women’s faces received a significantly higher average rating than men’s, regardless of who was scoring them.
Study author Dr Eugen Wassiliwizky said: “It is particularly striking that women rate other women as significantly more attractive than men.
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“Meanwhile male faces are rated similarly, and overall lower, by both sexes.
“The gap is a robust and widely observed phenomenon.
“It can be partly explained by differences in facial structure, but not entirely.”
Writing in the journal Proceedings B, by the Royal Society, the authors said that in nature it is usually male animals that have more impressive looks, for example the lion’s mane or peacock’s tail.
They said it is an “evolutionary riddle” why humans think women are more beautiful.
The global study found women’s average attractiveness rating was about a third higher than men’s.
It suggested there are both biological and social reasons.
Typical manly faces might have a bigger bone structure and facial hair which are signs of testosterone, the male sex hormone that also increases aggression.
This might make them more threatening and less attractive.
Dr Wassiliwizky said men were typically meaner to other men whereas women rated one another more kindly, perhaps because they were told to as children.
He suggested that men might be a more visual sex whereas women take other factors like personality into account when rating a potential partner.
And the authors added there could be a small effect of better female grooming, such as skincare and eyebrow shaping, and of advertising and TV teaching us to think women are more beautiful.
Dr Wassiliwizky added: “This study draws on the largest worldwide collection of facial attractiveness data to date.
“It demonstrates that judgements extend well beyond heterosexual mate choice.”
