The Relationship of Facial Fluctuating Asymmetry with Self-perceived Physical Attractiveness, Aggression and Extraversion.

Abstract

The relationship of Fluctuating Asymmetry with attractiveness, aggression and personality, has been studied due to Fluctuating Asymmetry’s ability to act as a marker of developmental stability. FA has been repeatedly shown to correlate negatively with attractiveness and aggression. However studies examining the relationship of FA with personality have yielded mixed results. The current study examined the relationship of facial FA with attractiveness, aggression and personality using the classic landmark based method (Grammer & Thornhill, 1994) applied to three-dimensional scans of faces when directional asymmetry was controlled for. In addition this study examined the reliability of the landmark method, and found that while overall reliability is good, it can be improved by removing landmarks that do not contribute significantly to facial FA measures. The expected relationships of facial FA with attractiveness, aggression and personality were not found. This can be attributed to changes in methodology in this study and methodological weaknesses in the literature.