1. By: Krystal Peplinski Minnesota State University Moorhead
Effect of Symmetry and Eye Color on Perceived Attractiveness and Mate Quality in Female College Students
By: Krystal Peplinski
Minnesota State University Moorhead

2. Questions Does symmetry in faces make people more attractive?
What about certain eye colors?
What happens if we mix these two and create an experiment where we manipulate both eye color and facial symmetry? Would the person be more attractive?
What about with relation to the participants eye color?

3. Background
Bilateral symmetry & fluctuating asymmetry (Farrera, Villanueva, Quinto- Sanchez, and Gonzalez-Jose, 2015)
Symmetry is a sign of good health and good genes (Zaidel, Aarde, & Baig, 2005)
Positive affect towards light colored eyes (Jones and Moyel, 1971)
Indicator of child’s heredity
Men pick women guarantee of fatherhood

4. Introduction
Increasing facial symmetry increases attractiveness (Perrett et al., 1999)
Environmental stressors (Farrera et al., 2015)
Eye color can be related to certain characteristics
Blue-eyed men had a stronger attraction for blue eyed women (Laeng et al., 2007)

5. Hypotheses Perceived attractiveness & mate quality ratings
Eye color ratings
Follow-up Chi-square hypothesis

6. Participants Lower level female psychology students
Sign-up sheet across from Psychology office
40 participants
20-minute session
Randomized and counterbalanced
Extra credit and debriefing
Ethical principles

7. Design 2 x 2 Within-Subjects Factorial 2 IVs DV 7-point Likert Scale
Chi-square Independence study

8. Materials Perceived Mate Quality Questions – Thompson & O’Sullivan
Likert Scales
Chicago Face Database
Photoshop
Randomize and Counterbalance

9. procedure Tested individually Informed consent Demographics
Rate in context of dating
8 target faces
Debriefing and participant extra credit blue card

10. Procedure (examples) 1 1ST participant – 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
2nd participant – 2,4,6,8,1,3,5,7 5 3
Procedure (examples)
Bl A
Br A
Br S
Bl A
Br S 7 8
Bl S 6 2
Bl S 4
Bl S
Bl A
Bl A
Br S
Br S
Br A
Bl S
Br A
Br A

11. Results 2x2 Within-Subjects factorial design 2 IVs DV
Symmetric
Asymmetric
Blue
Bl S
Bl A
Brown
Br S
Br A
2x2 Within-Subjects factorial design
2 IVs DV
7-point Likert Scales
Descriptive stats
2x2 Within-Subjects ANOVA
Chi-Square test for independence
Target
Blue
Brown
Other
Participant Eye Color

12. what I hope to find Significance in eye color and facial symmetry
A certain color with symmetry will be rated higher than the asymmetric face
Eye color related to participants eye color
Example: Blue-eyed participants = higher ratings for blue-eyed target faces

13. Questions?