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Facial Symmetry

Facial Symmetry refers to the bilateral split of the left and the right side of a face. Symmetry in this case does not mean that one side of the face is exactly reflective of the other due to slight deviations on each side of the face. These slight deviations are also known as fluctuating asymmetries. Although slight deviations occur, a symmetrical face will have a high correspondence in size, shape and arrangement of facial features on either side of the face Studies suggest that facial symmetry is a factor in attractiveness perception.

Introduction
Facial Symmetry is associated with human attraction in that the more symmetric a face is, the more attractive it is perceived as. The relation between symmetry and attractiveness has led to further research to see if symmetry influences the evolutionary fitness of people. There have been claims that facial symmetry could be an indicator of health, personality and behavior. These factors all contribute to the mate choice of an individual, which then infers that facial symmetry can influence potential mate selection.

Fluctuating Asymmetry
Small deviations on either side of the bilateral split, will exhibit a face that shows fluctuating asymmetry. Asymmetrical development and these slight deviations can be caused from chromosomal abnormalities, developmental rates of facial muscles, prenatal stresses and also environmental factors. The evolutionary cause of these slight deviations that produce a fluctuating asymmetrical face is due to the lack of developmental stability. The developmental stability is a person’s capability of producing offspring with well-developed symmetrical facial features that are unaffected by the causes mentioned above. Low levels of fluctuating asymmetry is an indicator of high developmental stability.

Symmetry and Health
The rating of attractiveness of symmetrical faces has been heavily supported to have a positive correlation to the perceived health and fitness of the individual. Symmetry and facial averageness is what influences the face to be perceived as healthy. Averageness, like symmetry deals with the physical characteristics of a face. An average face would have features that are of no extremes. The opposite of an average face, known as a distinct face, would have features that are of one extreme or the other. An example of an average facial feature to a distinct facial feature would be an average size nose compared to a nose which could be too large or too small. There are conflicting beliefs and uncertainty as to whether symmetry and averageness can be an actual indicator of health. There are many studies however, that show people with symmetric and average faces are perceived by others to be more healthy because they are generally considered more attractive. Rhodes et al. (2000) conducted a study to measure if symmetry and averageness relate directly to health. The experimenters morphed a virtual face to make it more average and more symmetrical and then asked 24 university students to rate the health of the morphed faces shown with the original faces. The second part of the study tested if there was an actual correlation between these symmetrical faces and the health of the individual. The results showed that the faces that were morphed to look symmetric and more attractive were perceived as healthier, but indicated that there was actually no correlation to direct health. The results for facial averageness however showed that it also is a factor in perceived health, but also could have a moderate correlation to actual health. Meaning that facial averageness but not symmetry may be an actual indication of good health and fitness.

Symmetry, Personality and Behavior
Based on the theory that a symmetrical face is rated as more attractive, studies have tested to see if there could be a relationship among attractive people, their personalities, and their resulting behavior. Certain theories suggest that symmetrical faces can indicate a person’s personality based on the “big five” personality scale. The big five personalities refer to neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. A study was done to see if symmetry can indicate the personality of an individual. Fink et al. (2005) predicted that a symmetrical face would be indicative of extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The less symmetry in the face would be related to neuroticism. Data from the study suggested that there was in fact a correlation between symmetry and extraversion and openness, but there was not enough strength in the evidence to confirm the relationship between conscientiousness and openness. The study also showed that faces that are less symmetrical can show a slight correlation with neuroticism. Because facial symmetry can indicate personality, there are certain inferences that can also be made about the sexual behaviors of people with more symmetrical faces. At a behavioral level symmetric men report more sexual partners in their lifetimes, begin sexual intercourse earlier; engage in other sexual relationships within a romantic partnership, and have more orgasms with their romantic partners than less symmetrical men. Although there are some indications that symmetry can reflect a person’s personality and behaviors, it should be noted that evidence is still controversial and many studies will confirm on certain aspects, but contrast in others. Further research using empirical evidence needs to be done to prove that there is a stronger correlation between facial symmetry and personality.