A web-based method for rating facial attractiveness.

Objectives/hypothesis: To determine if facial attractiveness scores from a novel Internet-based facial attractiveness rating method correlate with those from the traditional focus group rating method, and whether this method can be an alternative for rating and evaluating facial attractiveness.

Study Design: Basic research study.

Methods: Eighty facial portraits were posted on a commercial Internet-based facial rating website to obtain facial attractiveness scores. These scores were correlated and compared with traditional focus group scores.

Results: In 21 days an average sample size of 857 raters were recruited and the attractiveness scores reached a stable mean on the Web. There was a strong correlation (0.90) and attractiveness score quartile match between the Internet-based and traditional focus group scores, with the most attractive and unattractive faces having the highest correlation and quartile match. The inter-rater variability of the Internet-based method was low (P = .82).

Conclusions: The Internet-based method can be an effective alternative to the traditional live focus group method of evaluating facial attractiveness. It also has five main advantages: 1) profoundly increases rater count; 2) increases rate of data accrual and analysis; 3) results are reproducible; 4) eliminates logistical and monetary obstacles; and 5) enables the experimenter to sweep broad demographics, acquire background data from raters, and locate raters with specific expertise.