Differences between Caucasian and Asian attractive faces.

INTRODUCTION: There are discrepancies between the public's current beauty desires and conventional theories and historical rules regarding facial beauty. This photogrammetric study aims to describe in detail mathematical differences in facial configuration between attractive Caucasian and attractive Asian faces.

METHODS: To analyse the structural differences between attractive Caucasian and attractive Asian faces, frontal face and lateral face views for each race were morphed; facial landmarks were defined, and the relative photographic pixel distances and angles were measured. Absolute values were acquired by arithmetic conversion for comparison.

RESULTS: The data indicate that some conventional beliefs of facial attractiveness can be applied but others are no longer valid in explaining perspectives of beauty between Caucasians and Asians. Racial differences in the perceptions of attractive faces were evident. Common features as a phenomenon of global fusion in the perspectives on facial beauty were revealed.

CONCLUSIONS: Beauty standards differ with race and ethnicity, and some conventional rules for ideal facial attractiveness were found to be inappropriate. We must reexamine old principles of facial beauty and continue to fundamentally question it according to its racial, cultural, and neuropsychological aspects.