No Relationship between Perceived Facial Attractiveness &

Endurance Ability
Honors 221B, WI 2015
Jennifer Cheng, Liana Shibuya, Laura Lin & Kelsey Wallach
 This study examined the relationship between perceived facial
attractiveness and endurance ability. Participants rated the attractiveness
of 83 Badwater Ultramarathon finishers and their responses were analyzed
with respect to the runners performance in the race. No significant
correlation was found between the two variables, suggesting that there is
no relationship between endurance ability and perceived facial
attractiveness.
Introduction: The ability to travel long distances without tiring provides access to far away

resources, increases chances of successful hunting as well as aids in escaping threats to survival.

These benefits make endurance a desirable quality in a mate, both to gain access to resources and

to pass along these valuable qualities to offspring. With these advantages in mind, we hypothesize

that participants will perceive those with high endurance ability as more attractive than those with

low endurance ability.

Methods: A Human Subjects Division-approved online survey was administered to 201

participants. The survey displayed headshots of 83 finishers of the 2014 Badwater Ultramarathon

and asked participants to rate the attractiveness of each finisher on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being

least attractive and 5 being most attractive (Fig. 1). Each runner was given a performance number

calculated by the amount of time they finished the race before the last-place runner, so that faster

runners had larger performance numbers. The participants online responses were then analyzed

with respect to each runners performance number for the race.

If our hypothesis were correct we would expect to see a positive correlation between perceived

attractiveness and the performance number of runners in the race (Fig. 2). If our hypothesis were

incorrect, we would expect to see a negative correlation or no correlation between perceived

attractiveness and performance number.

Results: Analysis revealed that our hypothesis was incorrect, for both men (p=.822; r2= 0.00081)

and women (p= 0.35816; r2= 0.05298) no significant correlation was found between the runners

performance number and their perceived attractiveness. (Fig. 3a & 3b; Table 1a & 1b)

Discussion: These results suggest that endurance ability does not influence perceived

attractiveness. Our large sample size increases confidence in this conclusion, however at this time
we were unable to statistically control for participants age, sex and ethnicity. It is possible that

these variables may have had an effect on perceived attractiveness of the runners (eg. many of our

participants were college students who may not have found runners over 40 as attractive). To

address this a similar study could be done with college cross-country athletes. It is also interesting

to consider the possibility that endurance ability simply does not manifest in facial attractiveness,

but may do so through other physical cues. Further studies could be done using a wider array of

stimuli, such as first watching athletes complete a physically demanding task before assessing

attractiveness. If our hypothesis is true, then we would expect to see higher perceived

attractiveness in those that completed the demanding task more proficiently. If our hypothesis

were incorrect then there would be a negative or no correlation between task performance and

perceived attractiveness.
Figures/Tables:

Fig. 1 A screenshot of the online survey distributed to participants.

Fig. 2 Our predicted results that perceived facial attractiveness will be positively correlated with
performance in the 2014 Badwater Ultramarathon.
 Linear Regression

Regression Statistics
R 0.23018
R Square 0.05298
Adjusted R Square -0.00621
Standard Error 0.68498
Total Number Of Cases 18
A = 2.3750 + 0.0228 * B

ANOVA
d.f. SS MS F p-level
Regression 1. 0.41998 0.41998 0.89512 0.35816
Residual 16. 7.50707 0.46919
Total 17. 7.92706
Table 1a Regression statistics analyzing the relationship between performance number and
perceived facial attractiveness of female runners in the 2014 Badwater Ultramarathon

Relationship between Performance and Perceived Facial

Attractiveness for Female Runners
Average Attractiveness Rating

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

1
0 5 10 15 20

Performance Number

Fig. 3a No significant correlation was found between perceived facial attractiveness of female
runners and performance in the 2014 Badwater Ultramarathon.
 Linear Regression

Regression Statistics
R 0.02844
R Square 0.00081
Adjusted R Square -0.01505
Standard Error 0.47488
Total Number Of Cases 65
A = 2.2025 + 0.0022 * B

ANOVA
d.f. SS MS F p-level
Regression 1. 0.0115 0.0115 0.05099 0.82208
Residual 63. 14.20702 0.22551
Total 64. 14.21852

Table 1b Regression statistics analyzing the relationship between performance number and
perceived facial attractiveness of male runners in the 2014 Badwater Ultramarathon

Relationship between Performance and Perceived Facial

Attractiveness for Male Runners
4.2
Average Attractiveness Rating

3.7

3.2

2.7

2.2

1.7

1.2
0 5 10 15 20 25

Performance Number

Fig. 3b No significant correlation was found between perceived facial attractiveness of male
runners and performance in the 2014 Badwater Ultramarathon.