Does facial attractiveness really signal immunocompetence?

Jones, Benedict C. and Holzleitner, Iris J. and Shiramizu, Victor (2021) Does facial attractiveness really signal immunocompetence? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25 (12). pp. 1018-1020. ISSN 1879-307X (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.09.003)

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Abstract

The dominant theory of facial attractiveness judgments is that they evolved to identify healthy individuals with strong immune systems. Here, we summarize results of recent tests of this hypothesis, concluding that it has little compelling empirical support. We then propose an alternative perspective that emphasizes the effects of lifestyle health.