We encounter “new” faces daily, yet why do we pay more attention to some and less to others? Why do we perceive some faces as more attractive? Taking into account that a person’s sense of beauty is, in any case, always the result of subjective impressions, behavioral research has found some clues as to how we judge attractiveness and faces. Ratings of attractiveness are based on the following criteria: symmetry, babyfacedness, expressive features and the number of average faces contained within an individual face.

In Faceology, images have been adapted to fit these assumptions and then compared to the original images.

The original faces: the first part of the series shows 48 young women; the photos have been mounted on 12 panels of 4 photos each. Classmates were photographed from the front, their hair pulled back, without make-up, and all wearing the same T-shirt.

Morphing: according to the average-face hypothesis, a face that contains a large number of the original faces is regarded as particularly attractive. An approximation of such a face was obtained by morphing.

Symmetry: to illustrate the significance of symmetry, mirror images of both the left and right sides of each face were made; these were then morphed together.

Babyfacedness: the theory of babyfacedness states that typical babyface attributes evoke feelings of affection and attractiveness, and thus protective behavior toward those who have such attributes.

Expressive features: by mounting different shaped eyebrows and lips on a face, it was possible to show how even seemingly small changes affect a person’s attractiveness.

The comparison of faces (processed) in this project provides clues for assessing the attractiveness of a human face. All the same, they are only clues, because otherwise we would be able to give a much more precise answer to the question of what defines the beauty of our faces.