Study Reveals Misperception of Opposite-Sex Facial Preferences

A PLOS ONE study reveals that both men and women overestimate the opposite sex's preference for sexually dimorphic facial features (masculine or feminine traits). Using interactive 3D head models, participants chose their own ideal face shape and the face shape they believed the opposite sex would find most attractive. Women overestimated men's preference for feminine faces, while men overestimated women's preference for masculine faces. This misperception correlated with the discrepancy between participants' own and ideal facial dimorphism (an index of appearance dissatisfaction). The study suggests that misperceiving opposite-sex preferences contributes to appearance dissatisfaction.