Although there is compelling evidence for associations between facial masculinity and indices of dominance in men, comparatively few studies have tested for corresponding associations in women. Here we found that (1) ratings of women’s facial masculinity were correlated with their scores on a dominance questionnaire, and (2) prototypes with the average facial characteristics of women with high scores on the dominance questionnaire were judged to be more masculine than prototypes with the average facial characteristics of women with low scores, even when color and texture cues were kept constant to control for effects of makeup use. These findings suggest an association between facial masculinity and dominance in women, complementing prior work reporting that masculine women are perceived to be more dominant than their relatively feminine peers.
Many researchers have highlighted the importance of dominance perceptions for social behavior in humans (reviewed in Puts, 2010). For example, a recent model of social judgments of faces showed that perceptions of others’ dominance are a key predictor of a range of assessments about their personality, appearance, emotional state, and preferences (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008). Indeed, adults and young children judge others’ dominance from facial cues in similar ways, suggesting that dominance plays a fundamental role in social perception from a young age (Keating & Bai, 1986).
Prior work has demonstrated accurate perception of men’s dominance from facial cues (reviewed in Watkins, Jones, & DeBruine, 2010). For example, dominance ratings of men’s faces are positively correlated with indices of upper body strength (Fink, Neave, & Seydel, 2007; see also Gallup, O’Brien, White, & Wilson, 2010 and Sell et al., 2009) and social status (Mueller & Mazur, 1996). These findings appear to reflect the association between perceived dominance and masculine characteristics (reviewed in Puts, 2010 and Watkins et al., 2010); Fink et al. (2007) and Mueller and Mazur (1996) reported that the more dominant men in their studies possessed more masculine facial characteristics. Consistent with these findings, Pound, Penton-Voak, and Surridge (2009) reported that both facial masculinity and dominance are positively correlated with men’s testosterone responses to competition, suggesting that both characteristics may reflect the effects of testosterone surges during puberty.
Although there is compelling evidence linking masculine facial characteristics to indices of men’s dominance, few studies have investigated the relationship between facial masculinity and indices of women’s dominance. Moreover, results from these studies are inconsistent. In one case, sexually dimorphic facial proportions predicted aggression among men, but not among women (Carre & McCormick, 2008). Additionally, Gallup, O’Brien, White, and Wilson (2010) found that aggressiveness and dominance ratings of young women’s faces were not correlated with their upper body strength, although these correlations were significant in men. In another case, observers could accurately judge both men’s and women’s fighting ability from facial appearance alone, although judgments of women were less accurate than judgments of men (Sell et al., 2009).
Here we investigated the relationship between women’s scores on the dominance subscale of the International Personality Items Pool (IPIP, http://ipip.ori.org/ipip/; Goldberg, 1999), a questionnaire that has previously been used to assess individual differences in dominance (e.g., Havlicek et al., 2005 and Watkins et al., 2010), and ratings of women’s facial masculinity. Following research on men’s appearance and dominance (e.g., Fink et al., 2007), we predicted that the faces of women with high scores on the dominance subscale would be rated as less feminine (i.e., more masculine) than those of women with low scores.
