The Average Face

[Space Lieutenant Josh]

This is really interesting. Actually depresses me a little. What do you guys think?

http://www.uni-regensburg.de/Fakultaeten/phil_Fak_II/Psychologie/Psy_II/beautycheck/english/index.htm

[damnhooligan]

Interesting stuff, man. And a damn fine discussion so long as this doesn't come down to a fanboy fight over what pop star is hotter than another pop star.

I've always chalked facial beauty up to symmetry and personal cultural influence. But the fact that the computer constructed faces rated as more attractive than the unaltered faces was pretty expected. The larger the sample used to construct a face, the more even the features will be and generally more attractive. It was awesome that they used the Morpher programme. I love that thing.

Also, from a morpher thread I saw a while ago: Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan, Faith Hill, Gisele Bundchen, Natasha Henstridge, and Kate Beckinsale combined. (Ignore the hair, it never comes out right.)
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/592/6average7gq.jpg

[Space Lieutenant Josh]

A few thing that really got me were that A) the most beautiful faces were the ones that don't exist, which in a way says that we expect some impossibly high standard of beauty, and B) the average face is very reminiscent of the average Hollywood face, so, theoretically, when we idolize celebrities, we're idolizing everyone.

I dunno, weird.