Is medial canthal tilt a powerful cue for facial attractiveness?

Abstract

Purpose: To identify medial canthal tilt as an important cue used by judges in evaluating human female facial attractiveness.

Methods: An experimental study was conducted with the use of SuperLab Pro, and judges had to make a forced choice between unmodified faces and faces that had their medial canthal tilt accentuated through the use of Adobe Photoshop CS.

Results: Female faces with accentuated medial canthal tilt were preferred 93% of the time over unmodified faces (p < 0.0001).

Conclusions: Medial canthal tilt appears to be a powerful cue used in judging human female facial attractiveness. Its power may be due to its relation to the neotenic and sexually dimorphic cue of palpebral fissure inclination.