Why Bigger Eyes Mesmerize and Boost Female Attractiveness!

Summary

Sexual selection and male mate choice favor females with features such as neotenic faces, high-pitched voices, and big eyes, as they trigger a primal male impulse to protect infants. Many scientific studies have shown that a woman’s eye size significantly influences her overall facial attractiveness. A woman’s eye size along with the nose size plays a crucial role in her overall facial attractiveness, according to a study. Moreover, the experiment further supported this, demonstrating that increasing eye size enhances attractiveness, while decreasing it has the opposite effect.

Wider and larger eyes are consistently found to be more attractive in various studies. Eye roundness and the proportion of the eye covered by the iris also contribute to the perceived attractiveness and beauty of females. Interestingly, larger eye size not only increases a woman’s attractiveness but also positively influences her perceived social characteristics, such as honesty, competence, and warmth. In summary, longer eye length has a strong impact on female attractiveness, supported by numerous scientific studies.

Research

Sexual selection and male mate choice favours females with dimorphic sexual ornaments; features such as “neotentic faces, high-pitched voices, and fatty breasts and hips attract male investment” (Puts, 2010). Neotenic features (or a baby-like facial resemblance) such as big eyes, small round faces and high voices are thought to attract male care and affection by exploiting the primal male impulse to protect infants. This concept is further bolstered by many scientific studies. Men, simply, prefer women with big eyes. Out of the many studies of facial aesthetics and mate choice preferences, a woman’s eye size (and nose size) are often found to be the biggest influences for her overall facial attractiveness (Przlipiak et al, 2018). When the eye is lengthened horizontally, it creates the perception that the eye is bigger (Zhao et al, 2019). 

The Medical University of Białystok conducted an experiment, digitally increasing the eye size of female participants to increase their attractiveness (Przlipiak et al, 2018). These researchers further cemented this finding, by also showing that reducing the eye size also decreases attractiveness. There is a general consensus across scientific literature that “wider eyes make females more attractive” (Baudouin and Tiberghien, 2004; Przlipiak et al, 2018) and that overall “larger eyes [are found to be] more attractive” (Geldart et al, 1999; Baudouin & Tiberghein, 2004; Matsushita et al, 2015). 

In a conference paper presented by Mitsuhiro & Kitaoka, (2016) eye roundness (calculated as eye height / eye width) and the proportion of the eye covered by the iris compared to the whole eye both increased the perceived likeability, attractiveness and beauty of females. Interestingly, larger eye size not only increases the attractiveness of women but also supplements her perceived social characteristics: such as making a woman appear more honest (Atoum and Al-Simadi 2000), competent and warm (Goncalves et al, 2015). Together, by increasing both the impression of positive social characteristics, and overall female beauty; longer eye length has a strong and well-demonstrated effect on female attractiveness. 

References:

Puts, D. A., (2010). Beauty and the beast: mechanisms of sexual selection in humans. Evolution and Human Behaviour, 31 (3), 157 – 175. [Access available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1090513810000279 ].

Przylipiak, M., Przylipiak, J., Terlikowski, R., Lubowicka, E., Chrostek, L., Przylipiak, A., (2018). Impact of face proportions on face attractiveness. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 17(6), 954 – 959 . 10.1111/jocd.12783.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30291673/

Zhao, J., Zhang, M., He, C., & Zuo, K. (2019). Data-Driven Research on the Matching Degree of Eyes, Eyebrows and Face Shapes. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1466. 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01466.

Baudouin, J.,  and Tiberghien, G., (2004). Symmetry, averageness, and feature size in the facial attractiveness of women. Acta Psychologica, 117 (3), 313 – 332. 10.1016/j.actpsy.2004.07.002

Geldart, S., Maurer, D., Henderson, H., (1999). Effects of the height of internal features of faces on adults’ aesthetic ratings and 5-month-olds’ looking times. Perception, 28 (7), 839 – 850.  https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1999-01144-005

Matsushita, S., Morikawa, K., Mitsuzane, S., Yamanami, H., (2015). Eye shape illusions induced by eyebrow positions. Perception, 44(5), 529–540. 10.1068/p7823. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26422901/

Peshek, D., Semmaknejad, N., Hoffman, D., Foley, P., (2011). Preliminary Evidence that the Limbal Ring Influences Facial Attractiveness. Evolutionary Psychology. 9 (2), 137-146. https://doi.org/10.1177/147470491100900201

Matsushita, S., Morikawa, K., Mitsuzane, S., Yamanami, H., (2015). Eye shape illusions induced by eyebrow positions. Perception, 44(5), 529–540. DOI: 10.1068/p7823. 

Mitsuhiro K., Kitaoka A., (2016). The role of eye characteristics in facial beauty, likability and attractiveness. Conference paper in Proceedings of the 31st International Congress of Psychology (ICP2016), PACIFICO Yokohama, Japan. [Access available online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305768969_The_role_of_eye_characteristics_in_facial_beauty_likability_and_attractiveness]. 

Gonçalves, G., Gomes, A., Ferrão, M. C., Parreira, T., dos Santos, J. V., Giger, J. C., Martins, A. T., (2015). Once Upon a Face: the Effect of Eye Size, Observer and Stimulus Gender on Impression Formation. Current Psychology, 34 (1), 112–120. DOI: 10.1007/s12144-014-9244-3.