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Mate Choice Project

Group member:
Asha Pulliam
Carlos Hernandez
Daisy Ramirez
Thu Chau

Introduction
It has always been observed that there is a sexual preference about the appearance of the
opposite sex. From hair to something as simple as the lips, there exists a subtle preference for
what lip shape and color most attracts a person from the opposite sex. There can be a lot of
factors to the contribution of the preferences such as already having a partner, skin color, as
well an idea of what the ideal lip shape is. Angles of the jaw as well as distance from the nose to
the chin contribute to how the attractiveness of the lower part of the face is viewed. For
example, women who have a wider bottom lip to chin area were found more attractive by men
who were comparing them to women whom they see with a thinner area. 3 There are also
differences in gender attractiveness perception, as women who have a short chin to nose area
are considered more attractive than would be a male who has this area short. 3 Although these
are not major and deciding factors of what people will choose in terms of lip preferences they do
play a role in how these test subjects see an ideal lip.
By analyzing the Caucasian model lips and comparing them with the non-model lips, an ideal
lips with almost the same length, but higher measured number in upper- and lower-lips heights,
in left and right upper-lip heights, and lower measured number in upper- and lower-lip angle. 2 In
addition to that, lips-with similar perimeter but double in overall area in which indicate the fuller
lips of the model- is indicated sexier and more attractive to the opposite sex. 2 In the study of
Gugue, at the bar, a Caucasian female wearing red lipstick is found to be more charming to
male than pink, red, brown, and no lipstick.1 It was previously believed that lipstick plays a large
role in the perception of a making a woman more attractive. However this trend in lipstick
attractiveness seems to have slightly dropped as not many participants preferred lipstick over
naked lips.
The purpose of this study was to determine if lip color and lip size play a significant role in
attractiveness from potential mates, not only from Caucasians but also in other ethnicities. We
expect to find a definite lip preference by learning about whether lipstick does play as much of a
role as previously believed as well as which lip shape is prefered over others.

Methods
Within people around us we tested the survey to see if our experiment was done correctly and
if people will be able to understand what was it that we were asking for. First we asked
questions about what sex were they, their race/ ethnicity, age and last their sexual orientation.
To see if their is a diverse change when you see the age and the sex of a person has a lot to do
on how someone looks at one another.We decided that we would separate woman's from

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male's point of view and see what is it that attract within the lips to a male from a females point
of view. While the same things goes for the males. We came up with pictures for our survey. For
those who were sexually attracted to men we gave them one picture (Figure 1 ) where they
were asked to rate five different types of male lips in the order from greatest to least on how
they found each picture more attractive. As for those who were sexaully attracted to women,
they were asked to rate two different pictures. One of the picture (Figure 3) was a picture five
different types of shape of lips that were in black and white . In this picture they were asked to
rate them from greatest to least based on how attractive they were to the lips.The second
picture (Figure 2) where five different shades of lipstick on the same lips. They were asked
once again if they can rate the lips from greatest to least based on what color they found the
most attractive. All five shade where colors that we would commonly see girls wear either to a
party, a date, school or just a casual hang out. What we wanted was to show colors that were
used in everyday life.

Figure 1
Percentage of most attractive toward mens lips shapes (standard error of
mean) for people attracted to men (N=32)

Figure 2
Percentage of most attractive toward womens lips colors (standard error of
mean) to people attracted to women (N=36)

Figure 3
Percentage of most attractive toward womens lips shaped (standard error of
mean) to people attracted to women (N=36)

Figure 4
Percentage of least attractive toward mens lips shapes (standard error of mean)
for people attracted to men (N=32)

Figure 5
Percentage of least attractive toward womens lips shaped (standard error of
mean) to people attracted to women (N=36)

Figure 6
Percentage of least attractive toward womens lips shaped (standard error of
mean) to people attracted to women (N=36)

RESULTS
The survey revealed that out of the 32 people surveyed that were sexually attracted to men, The
highest favored male lip was C=44%, then followed by D=28%, E=16%, B=13%, A=0% (figure
1). A significant difference was shown at the least favored male lip with A=69%, then E=28%,
B=3%, C=0, and D=0(figure 4)
The 36 people who were sexually attracted to women showed no significant difference with
most attractive lip shape with A= 14%, B=0, C=11%, D=33%, E=42%(Figure 3) but did show a
significant difference with the least attractive lip shape A=28%, B=61%, C=6%, D=3%, E=3%
(figure6).
The 36 people sexually attracted to women were also asked to rate lip color which resulted to
the most attractive numbers being A(Nude) =30% B(PINK)=22% C(BURGUNDY)=19%
D(RED)=27% E(DARK PURPLE)3%1.(figure 2). While least favored showed a significant
difference in the least favorable lip color with A (Nude)=11% B(PINK)=8% C(BURGUNDY)=3%
D(RED)= 0 E(DARK PURPLE)=78% (figure 5).

Discussion
Other studies have suggested that Red is the color that men are generally attracted to the most,
but our results suggest that maybe the color red (Figure 2, D) is not the highest favored lip
color. Our study suggests that those attracted to women do not have a significant agrence in
what color is most attractive. We noticed that majority of those attracted to women said that the

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dark purple was least attractive to them(Figure 4). While doing the survey, a number of men
stated that they were more attracted to nudes and pinks because the lips seem more natural.
For the men's lips, the lips that were found more attractive were lips that are the average lip size
which have the same length and width within the shape of the lip ( Figure 1). The least attractive
lips on both men and women were the thinnest lips on the chart (Figure 4,Figure 5).
The result supports the hypothesis about a specific shape of the lips as stated. Although all the
choices have pretty much the same length, both two groups, men and women, got attracted to
similar lips shape, C and D for men (Figure 1) and as D and E for women (Figure 3). All these
four shapes are very symmetric. Also comparing with the others in the same figure, they have a
smaller right- and left-bow angles, slightly bigger in upper- and lower-lips angels (except with E
in figure 1 and A in figure 3). These most favorite choices are consider to be more equivalence
in ratio within the lips.However,there were limit scientific articles related to the ideal and/or
beauty lips. Since ancient time, the special paint or lipstick had been popularly using by human
and women in specific2. It was more appealed to the opposite sex than having a pale and less
lively lips. Aging was said to be the cause of thinner lips2. Therefore, a lively youthful lips would
be full and sharpen.
There are many limitation in the survey used in this project. First, the details and specific
numbers of angles, lengths and ratios are not determined. Only general ideals are formed after
the survey. No control groups is used to compare and analyze. While bi-sexual is excluded from
the result, both homosexual and heterosexual are considered. Although the lips shapes photos
are monochromatic, the racial features are easily recognized. Therefore, there could have been
bias in choosing the photo upon favored ethnic group. Lastly, the lips colors are established only
on Caucasian skin. Colors are correlated to the background color. Thus, it has a big impact on
the result.
As for future research, an analysis of various Miss World candidates faces will give a great
detail of the ideal lips with specific ratio on different face shapes.

REFERENCES
1. Guguen, N. (2012b). Does red lipstick really attract men? An evaluation in a bar. International Journal
of Psychological Studies, 4, 202209.

2. Marcus Bisson and Adriaan Grobbelaar (2004) The Esthetic Properties of Lips: A Comparison of
Models and Nonmodels. The Angle Orthodontist: April 2004, Vol. 74, No. 2, pp. 162-166.

3. Penna V., Fricke A., Iblher N., Eisenhardt S.U., Stark G.B. (2015) The attractive lip: A
Photomorphometric analysis. Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery,

4. Wlodarski Rafael and Dunbar Robin I.M.( 2014) What's in a Kiss? The Effect of Romantic Kissing on
Mate Desirability. Evolutionary Psychology 2014. 12( 1): 178-199