Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Shape Differences Between the Faces of Homosexual and Heterosexual Men

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archives of Sexual Behavior Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that homosexual men differ from heterosexual men in several somatic traits and lay people accurately attribute sexual orientation based on facial images. Thus, we may predict that morphological differences between faces of homosexual and heterosexual individuals can cue to sexual orientation. The main aim of this study was to test for possible differences in facial shape between heterosexual and homosexual men. Further, we tested whether self-reported sexual orientation correlated with sexual orientation and masculinity–femininity attributed from facial images by independent raters. In Study 1, we used geometric morphometrics to test for differences in facial shape between homosexual and heterosexual men. The analysis revealed significant shape differences in faces of heterosexual and homosexual men. Homosexual men showed relatively wider and shorter faces, smaller and shorter noses, and rather massive and more rounded jaws, resulting in a mosaic of both feminine and masculine features. In Study 2, we tested the accuracy of sexual orientation judgment from standardized facial photos which were assessed by 80 independent raters. Binary logistic regression showed no effect of attributed sexual orientation on self-reported sexual orientation. However, homosexual men were rated as more masculine than heterosexual men, which may explain the misjudgment of sexual orientation. Thus, our results showed that differences in facial morphology of homosexual and heterosexual men do not simply mirror variation in femininity, and the stereotypic association of feminine looking men as homosexual may confound judgments of sexual orientation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen, L. S., & Gorski, R. A. (1992). Sexual orientation and the size of the anterior commissure in the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 89, 7199–7202.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ambady, N., Hallahan, M., & Conner, B. (1999). Accuracy of judgments of sexual orientation from thin slices of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 538–547.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bogaert, A. F., & Blanchard, R. (1996). Physical development and sexual orientation in men: Height, weight and age of puberty differences. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 77–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bookstein, F. L. (1991). Morphometric tools for landmark data: Geometry and biology. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, V., & Young, A. W. (1998). In the eye of the beholder: The science of face perception. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bulygina, E., Mitteroecker, P., & Aiello, L. (2006). Ontogeny of facial dimorphism and patterns of individual development within one human population. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 131, 432–443.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Byne, W., Tobet, S., Mattiace, L. A., Lasco, M. S., Kemether, E., Edgar, M. A., et al. (2001). The interstitial nuclei of the human anterior hypothalamus: An investigation of variation with sex, sexual orientation, and HIV status. Hormones and Behavior, 40, 86–92.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dryden, I. L., & Mardia, K. V. (1998). Statistical shape analysis. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunkle, J. H., & Francis, P. L. (1990). The role of facial masculinity/femininity in the attribution of homosexuality. Sex Roles, 23, 157–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enlow, D. H., & Hans, M. G. (1996). Essentials of facial growth. Philadelphia: Saunders.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farkas, L. G. (1981). Anthropometry of the head and face in medicine. New York: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrario, V. F., Sforza, C., Miani, A., & Tartaglia, G. (1993). Craniofacial morphometry by photographic evaluations. American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, 103, 327–337.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fink, B., Grammer, K., Mitteroecker, P., Gunz, P., Schaefer, K., Bookstein, F. L., et al. (2005). Second to fourth digit ratio and face shape. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272, 1995–2001.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, J. B., Johnson, K. L., Ambady, N., & Rule, N. O. (2010). Sexual orientation perception involves gendered facial cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 1318–1331.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gaudio, R. P. (1994). Sounding gay: Pitch properties in the speech of gay and straight men. American Speech, 69, 30–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gladue, B. A., & Bailey, J. M. (1995). Spatial ability, handedness, and human sexual orientation. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 20, 487–497.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grimbos, T., Dawood, K., Burriss, R. P., Zucker, K. J., & Puts, D. A. (2010). Sexual orientation and the second to fourth finger length ratio: A meta-analysis in men and women. Behavioral Neuroscience, 124, 278–287.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hammer, O., Harper, D. A. T., & Ryan, P. D. (2001). PAST: Paleontological statistics software package for education and data analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica, 4. http://palaeo-electronica.org/2001_1/past/issue1_01.htm.

  • Johnson, K. L., Gill, S., Reichman, V., & Tassinary, L. G. (2007). Swagger, sway, and sexuality: Judging sexual orientation from body motion and morphology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 321–334.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Klar, J. S. (2004). Excess of counterclockwise scalp hair-whorl rotation in homosexual men. Journal of Genetics, 83, 251–255.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kleisner, K., Kočnar, T., Rubešová, A., & Flegr, J. (2010). Eye color predicts but does not directly influence perceived dominance in men. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 59–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kleisner, K., Příplatová, J., Frost, P., & Flegr, J. (2013). Trustworthy-looking face meets brown eyes. PLoS One, 8(1), e53285. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053285.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Klingenberg, C. P., Barluenga, M., & Meyer, A. (2002). Shape analysis of symmetric structures: Quantifying variation among individuals and asymmetry. Evolution, 56, 1909–1920.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kolamunnage, R., & Kent, J. T. (2003). PCA for shape variation about an underlying symmetric shape. In R. G. Aykroyd, K. V. Mardia, & M. J. Langdon (Eds.), Stochastic geometry, biological structure and images (pp. 137–139). Leeds: University of Leeds.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lalumiere, M. L., Blanchard, R., & Zucker, K. J. (2000). Sexual orientation and handedness in men and women: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 575–592.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LeVay, S. (1991). A difference in hypothalamic structure between heterosexual and homosexual men. Science, 253, 1034–1037.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LeVay, S. (2010). Gay, straight, and the reason why: The science of sexual orientation. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linville, S. E. (1998). Acoustic correlates of perceived versus actual sexual orientation in men’s speech. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 50, 35–48.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, M., Lynch, A., Brewer, G., & Bruno, D. (2013). Detection of sexual orientation (“gaydar”) by homosexual and heterosexual women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, doi:10.1007/s10508-013-0144-7.

  • Mardia, K. V., Bookstein, F. L., & Moreton, I. J. (2000). Statistical assessment of bilateral symmetry of shapes. Biometrika, 87, 285–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, J. T., & Nguyen, D. H. (2004). Anthropometric analysis of homosexuals and heterosexuals: Implications for early hormone exposure. Hormones and Behavior, 45, 31–39.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McDermid, S. A., Zucker, K. J., Bradley, S. J., & Maing, D. M. (1998). Effects of physical appearance on masculine trait ratings of boys and girls with gender identity disorder. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 27, 253–267.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McFadden, D., Loehlin, J. C., Breedlove, S. M., Lippa, R. A., Manning, J. T., & Rahman, Q. (2005). A reanalysis of five studies on sexual orientation and the relative digit length of the 2nd and 4th fingers (the 2D:4D ratio). Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 341–356.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholas, C. L. (2004). Gaydar: Eye-gaze as identity recognition among gay men and lesbians. Sexuality and Culture, 8, 60–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierrehumbert, J. B., Bent, T., Munson, B., Bradlow, A. R., & Bailey, J. M. (2004). The influence of sexual orientation on vowel production (L). Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 116, 1905–1908.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Development Team. (2009). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, Q. (2005). Fluctuating asymmetry, second to fourth finger length ratios and human sexual orientation. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30, 382–391.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rendall, D., Vasey, P. L., & McKenzie, J. (2008). The Queen’s English: An alternative, biosocial hypothesis for the distinctive features of “gay speech”. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37, 188–204.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rieger, G., Linsenmeier, J., Gygax, L., & Bailey, J. M. (2008). Sexual orientation and childhood gender nonconformity: Evidence from home videos. Developmental Psychology, 44, 46–58.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rieger, G., Linsenmeier, J., Gygax, L., Garcia, S., & Bailey, J. M. (2010). Dissecting “gaydar”: Accuracy and the role of masculinity–femininity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 124–140.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rohlf, J. F. (2008). tpsRelw (version 1.46). Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook.

  • Rohlf, J. F. (2009a). TpsDig2 (version 2.14). Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

  • Rohlf, J. F. (2009b). TpsRegr (version 1.36). Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

  • Rule, N. O., & Ambady, N. (2008). Brief exposures: Male sexual orientation is accurately perceived at 50 ms. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1100–1105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rule, N. O., Ambady, N., Adams, J., & Macrae, C. N. (2008). Accuracy and awareness in the perception and categorization of male sexual orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1019–1028.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rule, N. O., Ishii, K., Ambady, N., Rosen, K. S., & Hallett, K. C. (2011). Found in translation. Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1499–1507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savriama, Y., & Klingenberg, C. P. (2011). Beyond bilateral symmetry: Geometric morphometric methods for any type of symmetry. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 11, 280.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Savriama, Y., Neustupa, J., & Klingenberg, C. (2010). Geometric morphometrics of symmetry and allometry in Micrasterias rotata (Zygnemophyceae, Viridiplantae). Nova Hedwigia, 136, 43–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer, K., Fink, B., Grammer, K., Mitteroecker, P., Gunz, P., & Bookstein, F. L. (2006). Female appearance: Facial and bodily attractiveness as shape. Psychology Science, 48, 187–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelp, S. G. (2002). Gaydar: Visual detection of sexual orientation among gay and straight men. Journal of Homosexuality, 44, 1–14.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sylva, D., Rieger, G., Linsenmeier, J., & Bailey, J. (2010). Concealment of sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 141–152.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Třebický, V., Havlíček, J. Roberts, S. C., Little, A. C., & Kleisner, K. (2013). Perceived aggressiveness predicts fighting performance in mixed martial arts fighters. Psychological Science, 24, 1664–1672.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tskhay, K. O., & Rule, N. O. (2013). Accurate identification of a preference for insertive versus receptive anal intercourse from static facial cues of gay men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, doi:10.1007/s10508-013-0092-2.

  • Valentova, J., Rieger, G., Havlicek, J., Linsenmeier, J. A. W., & Bailey, J. M. (2011). Judgments of sexual orientation and masculinity–femininity based on thin slices of behavior: A cross-cultural comparison. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40, 1145–1152.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Witelson, S. F., Kigar, D. L., Scamvougeras, A., Kideckel, D. M., Buck, B., Stanchev, P. L., et al. (2008). Corpus callosum anatomy in right-handed homosexual and heterosexual men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37, 857–863.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zebrowitz, L. A. (1997). Reading faces: Window to the soul?. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelditch, M. L., Swiderski, D. L., Sheets, H. D., & Fink, W. L. (2004). Geometric morphometrics for biologists: A primer. London: Elsevier Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zucker, K. J., Wild, J., Bradley, S. J., & Lowry, C. B. (1993). Physical attractiveness of boys with gender identity disorder. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 22, 23–36.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

JV was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (13-16959P), KK was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GACR P407/11/1464), JV, KK, and JH were supported by Charles University research center UNCE 204004. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the article. We owe our thanks to Věra Pivoňková for helpful comments on the anthropometrical description of faces, to Adam Safron and Gerald Ostdiek for English corrections, and all the research participants for their willingness to cooperate in the project. We are also thankful to anonymous reviewers and the Editor for substantial improvement of the article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Theoretical Study, Charles University in Prague and The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Jilska 1, 11000, Prague 1, Czech Republic

    Jaroslava Varella Valentova

  2. Department of Philosophy and History of Sciences, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Karel Kleisner

  3. Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Havlíček

  4. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jiří Neustupa

Authors
  1. Jaroslava Varella Valentova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Karel Kleisner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jan Havlíček
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jiří Neustupa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jaroslava Varella Valentova.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Valentova, J.V., Kleisner, K., Havlíček, J. et al. Shape Differences Between the Faces of Homosexual and Heterosexual Men. Arch Sex Behav 43, 353–361 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0194-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0194-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation