Global meta-study finds women rated more attractive than men worldwide

A major international meta-study on facial attractiveness has found that women are, on average, rated as more attractive than men across all human populations. This holds true even among female raters, making humans a notable exception to the animal kingdom norm where males typically display more striking appearances.

A landmark international meta-analysis examining facial attractiveness across human populations has reached a striking conclusion: women are consistently rated as more physically attractive than men, and this holds true regardless of the gender of the person doing the rating.

The study, described as the largest global analysis of facial attractiveness to date, challenges assumptions drawn from the broader animal kingdom. In most species, it is the males who display more vivid or elaborate physical features — think peacocks, lions, or birds of paradise — as a strategy to attract mates. Humans, the research suggests, are a clear exception to this rule.

What makes the findings particularly noteworthy is that even women, when asked to rate faces, scored female faces higher on average than male ones. This cross-gender consistency suggests the effect is not simply a matter of heterosexual male preference, but something more deeply embedded in how humans perceive and evaluate attractiveness across cultures.

The research draws on data from multiple countries and cultures, lending it unusual breadth and statistical weight. Researchers emphasize that the results reflect average trends across large populations, and individual variation remains substantial. Nevertheless, the global consistency of the pattern points toward a potentially universal feature of human aesthetic perception.