by DARREN PESHEK et al.
Most human observers can quickly evaluate facial attractiveness. In fact it takes only 100 ms to determine the attractiveness of a face (Willis and Todorov, 2006). Faces that are more symmetrical, closer to the norm, or show greater evidence of estrogen or testosterone are generally perceived as more attractive (Cunningham, 1986; Grammer and Thornhill, 1994; Perrett et al., 1998; Perrett et al., 1999; Ramachandran and Hirstein, 1999; Rhodes, 2006; Wong et al., 2008). The eyes receive greater attention than any other feature of the face (Althoff and Cohen, 1999; Davies and Hoffman, 2002) and provide important cues that influence attraction during social interactions. Dilated pupils indicate emotional arousal (Bradley, Miccoli, Escrig, and Lang, 2008) and are rated more attractive by males and females (Tombs and Silverman, 2004). Observers prefer a direct gaze when judging the attractiveness of a happy face, more than when judging the attractiveness of a disgusted face, and this difference in preference is greater when viewing a face of the opposite sex (Conway, Jones, DeBruine, and Little, 2008). Here we show that a feature of the eye called the limbal ring also affects facial attractiveness.
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