Is Medial Canthal Tilt a Powerful Cue for Facial Attractiveness?
The eyes of a female can be a powerful predictor of facial attractiveness, with over 90% of
people rating a tilt in the inner eye as more attractive than an eye without a tilt.
The medial Canthus is the inner extreme of the eye, the area closest to the nose.
If we look towards trends in makeup and fashion, it’s clear that a big emphasis is placed
on accentuating a ‘tilt’ on this inner part of the eye, so that the inner margin
of the eye appears to be slanted downwards.
If we look towards certain models, like Claire Forlani, seen here in this picture on the
left, and Jennifer Connelly seen in the middle, it seems as if this extreme tilt is the main
feature potentially responsible for why these models are so attractive.
If we look towards certain masks, like the harlequin mask, It is also seen that the tilt
is exaggerated, with the overall goal of making people look more attractive while they wear
it.
Finally, we can even go as far as looking at Manga and comic characters that are designed
to be attractive with the medial canthal tilt, the slope on the inner part of the eye, being
accentuated.
So it’s clear that there is a recognition across the cosmetic, entertainment and design
industries of the potential of an exaggerated medial canthal tilt as an attractive feature
of facial aesthetics, but is there a perfect amount of tilt, and how can this tilt be used
effectively to enhance facial attractiveness?
In an earlier video by QOVES, we looked at whether there is a difference in eye shape
between men and women that would categorise the eyes as a sexually dimorphic feature of
the face, and you can check that video out here.
Today, we will look specifically about female eye shape with reference to facial attractiveness.
A study by academics at the University of Toronto attempted to scientifically quantify
the features of this eye shape phenomenon by developing the anthropometric measure we’ve
been talking about, the medial canthal tilt.
The term, only defined in this paper for the first time in 2007, shows how the field of
facial aesthetics research up until recently, was largely scientifically undefined.
To identify whether the medial canthal tilt was an important cue in evaluating human female
facial attractiveness, the researchers conducted an experimental study using the technology
‘SuperLab Pro’, forcing judges to make a choice between unmodified faces and ones
which had their medial canthal tilt accentuated through the use of Adobe Photoshop.
To do this, 66 female faces from the university of toronto database were sourced, to maintain
consistency in the trials, and due to the demographic of toronto being predominantly
of white European descent, only females of caucasian descent were used.
As always at QOVES, we highly recommend that further research include samples of females
from a diverse range of populations, as this will ensure a wider application of the effect
of a medial canthal tilt affecting ratings of attractiveness.
Nonetheless, persevering with this study, the eye tilt of each individual female, who
was not wearing makeup or any adornments like earrings, were subtly photoshopped to create
an enhanced medial tilt.
For the purpose of the study, the judges were masked from knowing that they were responding
to differing eye tilts.
Instead, the raters of the face thought they were judging the attractiveness of the two
images that had slightly different colouring.
So with that in mind, the judges had three seconds once both images were presented on
the screen to judge which one they thought was more attractive.
As is the case with lots of university research, university students were the judges for the
study, with 50 men and 50 women assessing the 66 images of the female faces.
To ensure there were no accidental confounding variables in the study, these judges were
excluded if they recognised any of the faces.
After completing this preference task 66 times, the judges were finally told the true purpose
of the study, realizing that medial canthal tilt was being assessed, and not the supposed
different colouring.
As the cosmetics, entertainment and design industry trends would have hinted, it was
found that the female faces with accentuated medial canthal tilt were preferred 93% of
the time over unmodified faces, with a probability value of p less than 0.001, meaning that the
chances that this result was by accident was less than 0.1%.
To contextualise this result, as there were two options of the face which could be perceived
as more attractive (either the modified face or the unmodified face), if there was no effect
due to enhanced medial canthal tilt, each condition should have received 50% of the
votes for more attractive.
The resounding 93% that was found significantly shows that the accentuation is quantitatively
seen as more attractive.
As both males and females rated these faces, it was interesting to see that males rated
the accentuated tilt more attractive 94% of the time, whereas females rated it more attractive
92% of the time.
While this is a difference, the sample size of 50 for each gender means that this difference
is not statistically significant, falling into the middle part of the normal distribution
of probability, and you could NOT infer that men rate the medial canthal tilt higher than
women.
A note in the study stated that most of the participants were genuinely surprised upon
finding out that the medial canthal tilt had been altered between the two faces, suggesting
that subtle and even unrecognisable features to the common person are vitally important
in determining the overall facial aesthetic.
This is another reason to go check out the QOVES facial analysing tool, which can tell
you things about your facial aesthetic that you might not have ever thought about yourself.
To help grow the channel and to make sure you keep up to date with all the facial aesthetics
research in a brain friendly way, make sure to like this video, subscribe to the QOV ES
channel and leave a comment to let us know what you’d like us to focus on next.
Now, the data from the experiment shows strongly that this inner eye tilt is a cue of importance
in creating female human facial attractiveness.
And it is even thought that
this tilt could be a sexually dimorphic feature,
that is, a feature that is different for females than for males.
When recognising it as a sexually dimorphic feature, we can see why this tilt would be
more attractive, as it signals to the brain of the judge that it is a more feminine
face.
Another reason the tilt may be subconsciously judged as more attractive is because it produces
the illusion of a more oblique palpebral fissure.
A palpebral fissure is the measurement of the area between the two eyelids.
Oblique, in this context, refers to the idea of a slant.
So, this is actually quite an obvious explanation, simply saying that the tilt of the inner eye
creates the illusion of a greater slant.
This greater slant is seen as more attractive as it gives the illusion of youthfulness,
as children have greater palpebral fissure inclination compared
to adults.
(Godfrey gao example, + z1 example) “In this example, the man has a prominent epicanthic
fold which covers his eyes and make them appear smaller and so if we were to rotate the tilt
downwards, it would start to look alien.
So the tilt has to match your eye morphology.
Now, with all of this research in mind, it makes sense to seek out some sort of surgical
intervention to increase one's medial canthal tilt.
In fact, it is noted in the research that numerous female judges asked the authors of
the study if there was a surgical procedure that could accentuate the tilt.
Currently, there exists no simple surgical procedure to accentuate this tilt, however
there is a fairly common procedure which can be used to accentuate the overall palpebral
fissure, which can create a more youthful look.
Innovative oculoplastic surgeons are no doubt designing procedures to accentuate the medial
canthal tilt, and QOVES recommendation to those surgeons is to take extreme care to
avoid any potential damage to the anatomy and function of what are very delicate structures
around that area of the eye.
So, with designers, animators and artists purposely accentuating this tilt in the design
of their characters, and with the modelling and entertainment industry purposefully seeking
out individuals with this tilt, it seems like the medial canthal tilt is a powerful predictor
of female facial attractiveness, increasing the sexual dimorphism of the face and acting
to create a greater slant in the eyes, which gives a more youthful look to the face.
With surgical procedures being extremely uncommon for this specific ocular feature, it seems
that the best way to accentuate the inner eye
tilt is through make up, giving the appearance
of a ‘cat-like’ eye shape.