Attractiveness of natural faces compared to computer constructed perfectly symmetrical faces.

Attractiveness of natural faces was compared to perfectly symmetrical faces constructed on the computer from digitized photographs, in order to assess the role of left-right symmetry in beauty assessment. Three different groups of participants viewed separate series of sequentially presented faces (natural faces, left-left, and right-right) and provided attractiveness ratings on a 5-point Likert scale. The results revealed statistically significant lower ratings for the computer constructed left-left and right-right compared to the natural faces. The discussion is in the context of a biological trend away from perfect symmetry in primates consequent to adaptive evolutionary alteration favoring functional asymmetry in the brain, perception, and face.