Abstract
The sclera, the eye’s tough outer layer, is, among primates, white only in humans, providing the ground necessary for the display of colors that vary in health and disease. The current study evaluates scleral color as a cue of socially significant information about health, attractiveness, and age by contrasting the perception of eyes with normal whites with copies of those eyes whose whites were reddened, yellowed, or further whitened by digital editing. Individuals with red and yellow sclera were rated to be less healthy, less attractive, and older than individuals with untinted control sclera. Individuals with whitened, “super-white” sclera were rated as younger, although not more healthy or attractive, than controls. In humans, clear, white sclera may join such traits as smooth skin and long, lustrous hair as signs of health, beauty, and reproductive fitness. The evolution of a white sclera may have contributed to the emergence of humans as a social species.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Skylar Spangler, Schnaude Dorizan, and Iman Kennedy for assistance in data collection, Steve Pitts for statistical assistance, and Helen R. Weems for editorial suggestions.
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Provine, R.R., Cabrera, M.O. & Nave-Blodgett, J. Red, Yellow, and Super-White Sclera. Hum Nat 24, 126–136 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-013-9168-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-013-9168-x