Science and genetics
How features are inherited and how faces are studied. 27 face guides on EveryFaceShape so far.
Science studies how faces form, how features are inherited and how people perceive faces. Embryology explains the philtrum and Cupid's bow; genetics explains eye colour and freckles; psychology studies symmetry and averageness. Science also shows what is not true: physiognomy, the old idea that faces reveal character, has no basis, and golden-ratio beauty claims are not well supported.
Growth and genes
The face forms in the embryo from several swellings of tissue that grow and fuse; the philtrum and Cupid's bow mark where they meet at the upper lip. Eye colour, freckling and many other traits are shaped by multiple genes, with OCA2, HERC2 and MC1R among the best known. Most features do not follow the simple single-gene patterns of older textbooks.
Perception
In 1990 Judith Langlois and Lorri Roggman reported that composite faces, blended from many photos, were rated attractive, a finding called averageness. Studies also find a modest preference for symmetry, though no face is perfectly symmetric. Claims that beautiful faces follow the golden ratio have not held up well. Physiognomy, used in the nineteenth century to support racist theories, is not science.
Famous science and genetics face guides
Still to be written: Averageness.
Further reading
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Epicanthic fold: Sarang, Public domain, source
- Freckles: Loyna, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Eye color: LeuschteLampe, Public domain, source
- Philtrum: Rick Kimpel, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Facial symmetry: Hermann Braus, Public domain, source