Evaluation of Influence of Individual Facial Aesthetic Subunits on the Congnition of Facial Attractiveness in Public.

Lee, Ho Bin; Lee, Soo Hyang; Kim, Ji Soo; Rhee, Seung Chul

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons 2010;37(4):361-368.
Published online July 1, 2010.

Evaluation of Influence of Individual Facial Aesthetic Subunits on the Congnition of Facial Attractiveness in Public.

Ho Bin Lee, Soo Hyang Lee, Ji Soo Kim, Seung Chul Rhee

¹Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ilsan Paik Hospital, Inje University, Gyounggi, Korea. rheesc@paik.ac.kr
²Y&T Plastic Surgery Clinic, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
Authors tried to analyze the influence of individual facial aesthetic subunits on the cognition of facial attractiveness in public and suggest a mathematical model which explain the facial attractiveness. METHODS: Independent facial aesthetic subunits are extracted from facial photographs from three women(11 frontal and 7 lateral aesthetic subunits). Each facial subunits of three women are rated in terms of relative rank by 164 peoples(68 man and 96 woman, average age was 32.4, and ranged +/- 9.8 years). chi-square-test and categorical regression analysis were performed.
RESULTS
There was no difference in the aesthetic preference in terms of ages or sexes in large. Beautification of individual aesthetic subunits can predict the overall facial attractiveness up to 42.1% in frontal face(Adjusted R2=0.421, F=6.39, p=0.000<0.05) and 22.7% in lateral face (Adjusted R2=0.227, F=4.42, p=0.000<0.05). Aesthetic appearance of eyes(p=0.001), upper face(p=0.034) in frontal face and midface(p=0.000) in lateral face are statistically important factors in the cognition of facial attractiveness.
CONCLUSION
Authors experimently proved that harmony and balance among facial aesthetic subunits are the most important factors, in embarking on facial aesthetic plastic surgery, for better enhancement of facial attractiveness.

Keywords: Facial attractiveness; Aesthetic subunit; Facial beauty