Gaze Patterns During Evaluation of Facial Attractiveness: An Eye-Tracking Investigation

Objective, controlled eye-tracking measurement of gaze patterns during layperson evaluation of facial attractiveness is currently lacking.

To objectively investigate (1) where on the face laypeople direct their attention when assessing attractiveness compared with a control group, and (2) whether increased fixation on certain facial regions is associated with high attractiveness ratings.

Lay observers viewed a cohort of 40 faces with a diverse age, sex, and racial distribution. Observers were either allowed to free-gaze without a specific task or rate facial attractiveness for 10 seconds per face while their gaze was recorded by an eye-tracking system.

Forty-seven observers assessed facial attractiveness (mean age 35.1 years (range 21-76), 62% female) and 57 observers free-gazed at the facial photos without a specific task (mean age 35.5 years (range 22-66), 54% female). Preliminary analysis showed that sex of both the face and observer substantially influence gaze-attractiveness associations (p < 0.05). Mixed effects analysis suggests that when males assessed female facial attractiveness, increased fixation time at the mouth correlated most strongly with high attractiveness (p = 0.001), whereas when females assessed male faces, increased fixation at the eyes (p < 0.001) and hair (p = 0.002) were most strongly associated with high ratings of attractiveness.

Increased gaze at the mouth in females and eyes and hair in males is associated with significantly higher ratings of attractiveness by observers of the opposite sex. Practitioners may want to pay special attention to these areas when designing an evidence-based aesthetic treatment plan.

NA Laryngoscope, 135:1995-2002, 2025.