Want a Mate? Then Look Him/Her Straight Into the Eyes

What would you prefer? The shy geek avoiding your look or the daring punk? The stupid bimbo not daring to look at you or the vivid girl piercing you with her eyes?

Maybe the folk wisdom already knows it, but a new research strengthens it: look directly at someone if you want to appear more attractive, say the results of a new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Most of the studies focusing on sexual attractiveness focused mainly on physical factors but this new study has analyzed the role played by gaze direction, gender and facial expression on how attractive people find you.

Subjects were assigned into 4 different groups and put to evaluate the attractiveness of the images they were presented. The team paired nearly identical computer-generated faces, with smiling or disgusted expressions, looking straight at the viewer, or off to the side.

It appeared that facial attractiveness is the result of the interaction of several factors: people with happy faces (no surprise), looking directly to us and of the opposite sex were found to be more attractive.

"When asked to think of examples of attractive facial characteristics, most people think of physical traits such as healthy looking skin, symmetrical features or a strong jaw. Here we show that gaze direction can also be important for attraction. Faces that were looking directly at the viewer were judged more attractive than faces with averted gaze," said author Dr Claire Conway, from the University of Aberdeen.

"This effect was particularly pronounced if the face was smiling and the opposite sex to the viewer. This shows that people prefer faces that appear to like' them and that attraction is not simply about physical beauty. It is possible that our brains are wired this way to allow us to invest our time in attracting members of the opposite sex who seem the most receptive to our interest in them."

Still, in many Asian cultures, looking straight into the eyes of a person is regarded as being rude.

"The Asian participants [in the study] demonstrated preferences for direct over averted gaze. But these are private preferences. Whether or not such preferences are also expressed in public situations we don't know." Conway told New Scientist.

The team believes that during our evolution, the brain got wired towards people already showing an interest for mating.