Is medial canthal tilt a powerful cue for facial attractiveness?

PURPOSE: To identify medial canthal tilt as an important cue used by judges in evaluating human female facial attractiveness. METHODS: An experimental study was conducted with the use of SuperLab Pro, and judges had to make a forced choice between unmodified faces and faces that had their medial canthal tilt accentuated through the use of Adobe Photoshop CS. RESULTS: Female faces with accentuated medial canthal tilt were preferred 93% of the time over unmodified faces (p \u3c 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Medial canthal tilt appears to be a powerful cue used in judging human female facial attractiveness. Its power may be due to its relation to the neotenic and sexually dimorphic cue of palpebral fissure inclination. ©2007The American Society of Opthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Inc