Eyelash length attractiveness across ethnicities,Scientific Reports
Eyelashes evolved to protect eyes. An optimum eyelash length functions to protect eyes from external hazards such as contaminations, excessive evaporation or shear stress from airflow. They can also be an indicator of a person's health as various congenital and noncongenital diseases can lead to short or long eyelashes. The current study aimed to extend a recent investigation on the preference for eyelash length in humans from an evolutionary adaptive perspective. Specifically, the current study tested whether the inverted-U function for eyelash length preference recently reported for White faces, generalises to other ethnicities, and whether ethnic background modulates preference for eyelash lengths. To investigate this question, men and women of Asian, Black, and White ethnicities from the U.S. rated the attractiveness of female Indian, Asian, Black, and White faces with varying eyelash lengths. The eyelashes ranged in length from no eyelashes to half the width of an eye. Results showed that Asian, Black, and White men and women preference for eyelash length followed an inverted-U function across all four ethnicities, supporting a general preference for human eyelash length that is approximately one-third the width of an eye. In addition, the results showed that the most attractive eyelashes for Black women were skewed toward a greater eyelash-length to eye-width ratio when compared to the other images. The source of this skew is presently unknown, as it could reflect a change in perceptual sensitivity to eyelash length with skin colour or changes in preference related to perceptions of participants’ ethnicity.
中文翻译：
不同种族的睫毛长度吸引力
睫毛的进化是为了保护眼睛。最佳的睫毛长度可以保护眼睛免受外部危害，例如污染、过度蒸发或气流剪切应力。它们也可以作为一个人健康状况的指标，因为各种先天性和非先天性疾病都可能导致睫毛短或长。目前的研究旨在从进化适应性的角度扩展最近对人类对睫毛长度偏好的调查。具体来说，当前的研究测试了最近报道的针对白人面孔的睫毛长度偏好的倒 U 函数是否可以推广到其他种族，以及种族背景是否会调节对睫毛长度的偏好。为了调查这个问题，来自美国的亚洲、黑人和白人男性和女性对不同睫毛长度的印度、亚洲、黑人和白人女性面孔的吸引力进行了评级。睫毛的长度从没有睫毛到眼睛宽度的一半不等。结果显示，亚洲、黑人和白人男性和女性对睫毛长度的偏好在所有四个种族中都遵循倒 U 函数，这支持了人类对睫毛长度的普遍偏好，即大约为眼睛宽度的三分之一。此外，结果表明，与其他图像相比，对黑人女性来说最有吸引力的睫毛倾向于更大的睫毛长度与眼睛宽度比率。这种偏差的来源目前尚不清楚，因为它可能反映了对睫毛长度的感知敏感度随肤色的变化，或者与参与者种族感知相关的偏好变化。