MALE EYE SHAPE PREFERENCE IN FEMALE MATES

Introduction
Human mate choice is a complex subject, there are many factors that go into the
decisions of mate selection. Most of those factors we might not know are being used to
determine our mate choice. We may not think about it but eye shape is one of the first things we
notice when we meet someone. Eyes can say a lot about our character and how we are seen by
the rest of the world. Judging the shape of someone's eyes may not specifically determine the
type of person they are in terms of personality but thats how we see it. Physical attraction is

something we consider when mate selecting. According to the Journal of Social Psychology
(2005) Women with neotenous features, such as large eye size, are consistently rated as most
physically attractive. This is saying that based on previous studies it is proven that women with
large eye size are seen as more attractive. We are looking to see if there is a pattern in eye shape
selection or a distinction in males from different age groups and ethnicities. We hypothesize that
the average male's preference for eye shape would be round-shaped eyes due to round eyes in
women being seen as more physically attractive.

Methods

Our methods consisted of us asking 30 male students at Pasadena City College at

random to choose from four different pictures of eyes to see which eye shape they prefer.
Then we asked them for their age and ethnicity and documented the results.

Results
We walked around campus and talked to 30 male students. We showed them four
pictures (Figure 1) and asked them to pick which they found the most attractive. Image 1 is
monolids, image 2 is protruding, image 3 is round, and image 4 is almond. We hypothesized that
round eyes would be the most popular choice but it was proven that almond eyes were the most
popular choice from our experiment. Regarding ethnicities, people of Asian and Hispanic
descent prefered almond shaped eyes; only people of white descent prefered round shaped eyes
(Figure 2). Almond eyes were the most popular amongst people who were 18 years of age
(Figure 3). Although other eyes were also popular amongst male students, almond eyes were the
most dominant. From our data collecting, we discovered that majority of people regardless of age
and ethnicity preferred almond shaped eyes. From these results, we can assume that male
students of Pasadena City College prefer women with almond shaped eyes.

Figures

Figure 1. Images that were shown to each male participant.

Figure 2. Graph showing which Ethnicity prefers which eye shape.

Figure 3. Graph showing which ages prefer which eye shape.

Discussion
According to the results, almond eyes were the most popular choice for men. Our
hypothesis was refuted rather than supported as we had predicted that round eyes would be the
most popular choice. For further research on mate choice and reproduction within the human
species, the article Evolution of Human Mate Choice, David C. Geary, et al., explains facial
features that impact human mate choice. The article explains the different features that are
considered to be as attractive in both genders are usually larger features, which indicate fertility.
The article explains in greater detail the attractiveness of fertility cues to the subconscious mind,
Fertility cues and indicators of good genes include physical traits that members of the opposite
sex find attractive. This applies largely to Western culture, where husband-wife relationships are
more intimate than in many other cultures (Geary, 1998). Round eyes, however, are often
associated with cuteness within babies rather than women. According to the article, Threat and

Social Choice: When Eye Size Matters, women with round eyes were seen as agreeable, warm,
and naive and women with smaller eyes were seen as dominant, mature, and independent. To
others, round eyes are associated to innocence as children and babies usually have round and
bigger eyes compared to adults. Unfortunately, our hypothesis could not be supported as the
most popular choice was almond eyes over round eyes.

Literature Cited
Benz, J.J., M.K., Anderson, and R.L. Miller.(2005). Attributions of Deception in Dating
Situations. Psychological Record.
Geary, D.C., Vigil, J., & Byrd-Craven. J. (2004) Evolution of Human Mate Choice. The Journal
of Sex Research, 41 (1), 27-42.
Threat and Social Choice: When Eye Size Matters. (2005). Journal of Social Psychology, 145(5),
547-570.