Abstract

Facial attractiveness was optimized when the face’s eye-mouth distance was 36% of its length and the interocular distance was 46% of the width (Pallett et al., 2010). This study called these ratios as new golden ratios for facial beauty. The current study investigated whether the golden ratio could be changed after adapting to a distorted ratio. We found that perceived attractiveness shifted toward the distorted length ratio after adapting to it. The results suggest that perceptual adaptation leads to the recalibration of perceived attractiveness. Thus, the facial length ratio is not an absolute criterion for facial beauty. It can vary depending on personal experiences and social circumstances.