Qoves Facial Width to Height Ratio101 [In this episode…]
Have you ever wondered why certain faces just look angry, intimidating or appear to have
an RBF.
There is a mathematical ratio of facial width to height after which point cognitive psychologists
have found that we see these faces as appearing aggressive looking or dangerous.
In this video we’re going tol be focusing on the Facial-Width-To-Height ratio
and how it connects to things like perceptions of dominance, achievement drive, and other
social cues.
Is there a connection between testosterone in men and FWHR?
After laying out that framework, we will tie it all together and see how FWHR affects facial
attractiveness.
First off, What is the Facial Width to Height Ratio (short FWHR)?
How do you measure it?
There are a lot of different ways to measure the FWHR, but in general it is a measurement
of how wide and compact the midface appears.
Different researchers take the measurement at different cephalometric points on the face,
and accordingly name the measurement FWHRnasion, for example.
This actually matters a lot when we are talking about the FWHR, because the measurement, and
its ties to sexual dimorphism can vary drastically depending on the cephalometric points used.
Across all variations, the width of the face must to be measured at the widest part of
the cheekbones, called the bizygomatic width.
Researchers will then divide that measurement by the height of the midiface; the distance
from the upper lip, to a point near the brow bone.
The FWHR measurement that is most contextually relevant to attractiveness, dominance, and
sex differences is the FWHRbrow; this takes the measurement at the low to mid eyebrow.
You can sort of see how this would lead to a more elongated midface region, as higher
set eyebrows ‘space out’ the length of one’s midface.
Likewise, men usually have eyebrows that are closer to their eyes and would have a higher
FWHR on average.
Two faces we have looked at on this channel, Johnny Depp and Sean o’ Pry are examples
of high FWHR due to low brows and wide facial structure.
Keep this idea in mind as we take a look at the research that uses different FWHR variations.
How does FWHR affect our social perception?
Most of the research regarding FWHR is done within the realm of social perception, particularly
on stuff like trustworthiness, dominance, and aggression.
Some studies also try to link the measurement to creativity, but that has not been looked
at as much.
The resounding ‘idea’ in FWHR research has been that it is associated with aggression.
However, this is not really true, at least in the negative sense.
In fact, Ward and Alrajih found the strongest association FWHR seems to have is with dominance,
especially tying into success and drive.
Ceo’s in the UK had greater FWHR and were rated higher in dominance and success.
Lewis et al. also found a similar trend between fwhr and achievement drive within former US
presidents.
Research by Stirrat et al. found that wider faced males are less likely to die from contact
physical violence.
Perhaps something to do with facial width cues into aggressiveness and male dominance.
A Thesis by philosophy PdD Carmen Lefevre tried to find what biological features in
the face tie into perceptions of dominance and trustworthiness.
Earlier research suggested two basic things underlie the perception of someone's face;
dominance and trustworthiness.
Since FWHR had already been tied to those two it was worth investigating.
What she found was achievement striving was also related to FWHR, which gives a more positive
outlook than simply tying it to aggression.
FWHR seems to be more connected to dominance traits than anything else.
Things like drive, ambition, achievement, and winning.
This does not have to point to manipulative or aggressive behavior, but we should not
rule that out either.
Geniole et al noted a connection between FWHR and ‘judgements of aggression’ (so not
necessarily a person showing aggression).
People may be sensitive to recognizing a high FWHR to quickly pick out who is aggressive
and who is not.
Then the judgments of trustworthiness come secondary.
This image shows how having different facial expressions can change your FWHR; so smiling
seems to increase your FWHR by raising the upper lip and lowering the brows.
This is interesting because smiling doesn’t usually equal dominance/aggression, but then
again maybe it does.
A sad face lowers FWHR which can give off the impression of a less dominant face.
What does the research say about FWHR being sexually dimorphic, or does it lean more feminine
or masculine?Is it associated with testosterone?
The research on FWHR tying into testosterone levels in men is very conflicted, but most
research seems to note FWHR being a sexually dimorphic measurement.
In other words, we can tell a male face vs. a female face based on their facial width
and FWHR.
Kramer et al. failed to support the hypothesis of sexual dimorphism in the FWHR, but if we
look closer at the methods of the paper they seem to be using the FWHRnasion measurement
instead of the FWHRbrow.
What this will end up doing is standardizing the results to be closer between men and women
than if they considered the sexually dimorphic position of the eyebrows.
This is exactly what happens as we can see the FWHR measurements are quite high in the
table.
We would most likely see some clear differences in FWHR if using the FWHRbrow measurement.
Albert et al. did end up showing this in 2021; FWHRbrow was much wider in pre-and post pubertal
males.
The reason for this was, as expected, large sex differences in brow height, with females
having higher placed eyebrows.
As far as testosterone in males, Lefevre et al. do show positive associations between
FWHR and testosterone reactions to potential mate exposure in a speed-dating event.
How does FWHR play into facial attractiveness?
Valentine et al. studied the role of FWHR in regards to dominance and Mate choice at
speed-dating events.
Indeed, Men’s FW HR was seen as more dominant, gave the men a better chance of a second date,
and was more attractive to women in short term, but not long term relationships.
This was in short-term relationships, but how about for general attractiveness and female
attractiveness?
Just by observing the faces of attractive male and female models in the West, most do
have high FWHR.
This is because Western beauty standards prefer robust bone structures, wider faces, and bedroom
eyes.
You would find a totally different trend in eastern beauty culture, where slightly lower
FWHR would be seen as more attractive; they prefer slimmer faces, less angularity, and
more neotenous eye areas.
However, this does not mean they prefer a ‘long face’, most attractive east asians
also have a normal to high FWHR.
This is common sense, but a midface or face that is too wide and bloated, or too narrow
and elongated, is not going to be found as attractive.
This is where lying towards the ‘mathematical average’ is going to appear more attractive.
Or more simply put, having a harmonious facial width.
A FWHRbrow measurement too high can make your face look alien-like and puffy.
Too low, and it starts to resemble a horse.
What is too high or too low, well it also depends on a lot of other facial features,
but around 1.7-2.2 is pretty ‘normal’; most attractive Western faces will be more
in the middle at about 1.9-2.1.
Through photoshop, we can alter Adrien Brody’s low FWHR of about 1.6 to be a more normal
1.8 and give him a more conventionally attractive midiface region.
How does weight affect my FWHR, and thus social perceptions?
Gaining facial fat can round out the face, giving an overall wider face, and higher FWHR.
You can also check out our video on ‘How facial fat influences your looks’.
In this sense, adding FWHR will not increase one’s attractiveness even though a higher
FWHR does seem to make a person appear more dominant and attractive.
Anyone can achieve a higher FWHR by gaining a lot of weight.
Jordan Barret, who already has a wide bone structure, has an outlandishly high FWHR when
he puts on some extra facial fat.
Editing his facial width puts his FWHR in a more harmonious zone.
In the study by Kramer et al. from earlier, a relationship between BMI and FWHR was evident.
Facial fat and added soft tissue ‘conceals’ your ‘true’ FWHR by giving you a wider
face.
The same thing was found in the paper by Albert et al., noting how further research must control
for BMI, and focus on the FWHRbrow measurement to account for eyebrow differences.
They also noted how aging tends to elongate the midface and lead to lower FWHR as everything
‘sags’.
In that sense, FWHR could also have some ties to youthfulness.
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If you would like to get your face assessed, discover whether your FWHR makes you appear
dominant, or just get an indepth look into your face order a QOVES facial evaluation
over at our website, performed by our in-house team of doctors and dentists to help you achieve
that next big glow-up.
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