European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 1, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Or cling to faces that trigger female feelings Rotert Redford Damp Kotrous Tost to Temide too cd it Eastwood �?7ko.tjauft Tiatco x by Malcolm Gladwell Washington Post its a Safe bet that few women Ever wanted to Mother Clint Eastwood. The steely narrowed eyes. The rugged Jawline. The thin lipped sneer. This is the face of a Man to save the Homestead from marauding indians to stare Down an outlaw in a Saloon. But not to cuddle. Now take Paul Mccartney a he of the Doe eyes Chipmunk Cheeks and Teddy Bear Chin. Ten thousand teeny toppers can to be wrong. The Man is adorable. The faces of Eastwood and Mccartney represent the two extremes in male facial types each of which psychologists argue elicits its own distinctive emotional reactions. People with facial features characteristic of infants bring out the same feelings of nurturing and compassion that babies do. Men with mature masculine features on the other hand convey vigor and sexual Power. This much is conventional Wisdom. But writing in the latest Issue of the journal of personality and social psychology three researchers led by University of Louisville psychologist Michael Cunningham argue that the differences in male facial types May also serve to explain that oldest of questions Why Are women attracted to men citing recent behavioural experiments the researchers present a controversial theory they Call the multiple motive hypothesis. It says that women Are most attracted to male faces that Combine the Best elements of both these extremes a the Large eyes and medium to Small nose of the baby a face with the Strong jaw and wide cheekbones of the mature Man s face. Women prefer men in other words whose faces inspire both their inclination to nurture and their desire for a sexually mature partner. They want men they can cuddle like Mccartney and cling to like Eastwood. They like Robert Redford big eyes and Strong jaw Over Michael Jackson no Chin. They like Mel Gibson a god Over a1 Pacino nose much much too big. . Simpson and Tom Selleck also qualify As perfect scores according to the researchers. This theory is not about True love of course. Why one woman or Man becomes truly committed to another results from a Host of factors of which facial attractiveness is Only one. Nor is it about body shape which obviously plays its own significant role. This is about impressions formed by photographs by Chance encounters by staring deep into a Man s eyes. This is about faces that trigger that first quickening of the pulse that first hint of longing that weakening of the Knees. This is about wow the implications of the theory Are enormous. The researchers claim that these standards of attractiveness Cut across social racial and cultural lines that while women around the world have different tastes in male weight body Type and grooming everywhere they like the same thing in a Many a face. Moreover the psychologists maintain that their experimental results allow them to quantify the components of male attractiveness. They can predict Down to the Hundredth of a millimetre what the most attractive Eye size is what turns a Chin from a liability into an asset and How big a nose a Man can carry before women Start to look away. Are we close to knowing what the perfect male face looks like Quot this is an interesting theory with an interesting underlying hypothesis a says Brandeis University psychologist Leslie Zebrowitz who works in the same Field. Quot but its controversial. There May be some Universal principles of attractiveness. But in a not so convinced that we know yet what they  the idea that faces fall into types and that those types can in turn inspire Strong emotions is not a new one in behavioural psychology. Zebrowitz for example has used the same Quot baby face mature face Quot distinction in research on social attitudes. Quot baby faced people Are seen As More naive More submissive warmer More honest and physically weaker than their age mates Quot she says. Mature faced men by contrast Are perceived As being stronger shrewder and More dominant. In a Long study of courtroom trials Zebrowitz found that the More baby faced the defendant looked the More Likely he was to be acquitted of crimes involving intentional misconduct. However in keeping with the image of baby faced naivete and weakness defendants of that Type were More Likely to be found guilty when charged with negligent behaviour. For mature faced types the reverse was True. Cunningham a research tries to determine How these emotional reactions to facial features fit into a Many a attractiveness to women. To do this he and his colleagues gathered head and shoulders photographs of Young men and showed them to Large groups of mainly White College age women asking them to rank the pictures using a variety of attractiveness Scales. Then the researchers broke Down the faces into 25 categories painstakingly measuring the dimensions of each feature to determine which part of the face correlated Best with High attractiveness scores. The results a which were substantially the same for both the White women and later studies with groups of hispanic asian and Black women a found larger than average eyes to be the most important Factor. Quot eyes convey information a Cunningham says. Big baby like eyes suggest spontaneity innocence vulnerability. Small eyes though a Mark of maturity May a convey a lower need for affection and  on the other hand women did no to seem to like an underdeveloped baby like jaw and Chin. Quot jaws convey age but also strength Quot he says. Quot it signals that a Man has gone through  wide Cheeks and High cheekbones a signals of male physical maturity and strength a also Are Good. But so Are smiles which have nothing to do with sexual maturity and Are a Universal signal of Joy responsiveness and sociability. High status clothing a dark suits with a tie a seem to help As does Shorter hair both of which could be interpreted As symbols of achievement. Quot a Man who possesses an attractive combination of infant like mature expressive and Good grooming features who looks outgoing and Well dressed rugged but also cuddly and masculine but not extremely sex typed May appear to offer the Best Chance for an affectionate High status. Mate Quot the study concludes. What women want Cunningham says is a face that has it All. Page 16 the stars and stripes monday october 1,1990