#7-1. Differences in attractive eyes across races and ethnicities

1. Why do Korean women want the double eyelids?

I would like to discuss in the next few articles the difference in what is considered attractive eyes across races and ethnicities. Before we can go into the mathematical characteristics of attractive eyes, I will start this article by focusing on the reason behind the Korean women’s preference of the double eyelids.

One of the most common invasive aesthetic procedures performed in Korea is blepharoplasty. As surmised in the saying “eyes are the window to one’s soul,” eyes are one of the most important facial features that determine its attractiveness. Clearly and symmetrically shaped facial features help create a very favorable first impression. Among the features that form the aesthetic subunits of the face, eyes can be said to play the most important role in determining one’s attractiveness.

In 2009, I conducted a study on the effect of each aesthetic subunit on the overall facial attractiveness¹. In this study, I isolated the aesthetic subunits from the faces of three women. Then, I extracted the components of the aesthetic subunits from 164 people (68 men and 95 women with the mean age of 32.41±9.83 years [19-70 years]) to evaluate the attractiveness of the eyes, nose and mouth, etc. separately. Then I carried out a special survey on the attractiveness of the overall face.

I examined the effect of individual aesthetic subunits such as the forehead, nose, and eyes, etc. on the attractiveness of the overall face. Statistical analysis was performed using the Fisher’s exact test as well as Kappa test for measurement of agreement, and categorical regression for model prediction. I analyzed the frontal and lateral view of the face. The results on the frontal face are as follows.

Statistical analysis of the attractiveness seen for individual aesthetic subunit and Kappa agreement measured with the entire face showed:

The general public seemed to view the face as attractive when the eyes or the eyes and nose were attractive.
The attractiveness of the eyes was the most important factor for evaluating the attractiveness of the frontal face.

The relative importance of each aesthetic subunit in a frontal view of the face was as follows in the order of larger importance to smaller importance; eyes, upper face, lower face, mid face, chin (jawline), lips, forehead, nose and cheekbones.
The statistical significance (importance) of individual aesthetic subunits in my prediction model was as follows (Image 1).

a) Forehead: 0.468(0.764), b) eyes: 0.001(6.956), c) nose: 0.181(1.741), d) lips: 0.405(0.911), e) chin: 0.374(0.991), f) cheekbones: 0.198(1.641), g) upper face: 0.034(3.456), h) mid face: 0.228(1.494), i) lower face: 0.073(2.660) j) facial shape: 0.414(0.886)

Image 1. Importance of individual aesthetic subunits of the face. Adjusted R²=0.421, F=6.39, P=0.000<0.05.

This study somewhat underestimated the importance of the lower face than other results. The predictability of the individual facial model was lower in the frontal face (Adjusted R2=0.421). However, when the general public evaluates the attractiveness of a stranger’s face in a short amount of time, the only individual aesthetic subunits of the face with significant impact on the overall facial attractiveness were the upper face and eyes. In other words, the aesthetic subunits that had the biggest impact on the attractiveness of a face at a glance were the eyes and the upper face.

As shown in such results, the eyes play a very important role in determining the beauty of the overall face. Therefore, plastic surgeons need to establish clear definition and concepts of attractive eyes. Understanding the features that make attractive eyes in each race, ethnicity and sex and reflecting this in the surgical techniques can drastically change the outcome of upper blepharoplasty and forehead lift, etc.