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In a new study of facial attractiveness, researchers from Scotland and Japan have found that people of both sexes prefer feminine-looking men over rugged, manly-featured men. When shown computerized photographs of young men whose images had been manipulated to make them look either more masculine or more feminine, viewers designated the artificially feminized faces as more attractive than the average faces, and more appealing by far than the masculinized versions.

The results, which appeared in the journal Nature, held cross-culturally, whether the faces shown or the people passing judgment were Japanese or Caucasian.

The scientists, reflecting their heterosexist bias, had predicted that traditional masculine facial markers such as a big jaw, square face, prow nose, and heavy brow would prove impressive to men and irresistible to women, who in theory are ever on the lookout for their alpha mate. Instead, appraisers seemed drawn to a touch of girlishness-- slender nose, cupid's lips, lightened brow, adorable chin.