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Human Homogamy in Facial Characteristics

Does a Sexual-Imprinting-Like Mechanism Play a Role?

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Abstract

Human homogamy may be caused in part by individuals’ preference for phenotypic similarities. Two types of preference can result in homogamy: individuals may prefer someone who is similar to themselves (self-referent phenotype matching) or to their parents (a sexual-imprinting-like mechanism). In order to examine these possibilities, we compare faces of couples and their family members in two ways. First, “perceived” similarity between a pair of faces is quantified as similarity ratings given to the pair. Second, “physical” similarity between two groups of faces is evaluated on the basis of correlations in principal component scores generated from facial measurements. Our results demonstrate a tendency to homogamy in facial characteristics and suggest that the tendency is due primarily to self-referent phenotype matching. Nevertheless, the presence of a sexual-imprinting-like effect is also partially indicated: whether individuals are involved in facial homogamy may be affected by their relationship with their parents during childhood.

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Notes

  1. Sexual imprinting in non-human animals is traditionally thought to occur in a brief, critical period. The imprinting-like phenomenon in humans is much less phase-sensitive. Also, non-human imprinting tends to be irreversible, whereas human mate preference can be altered later in life much more readily. These differences make us and other researchers hesitate to call it “real” sexual imprinting. We therefore use the term sexual-imprinting-like.

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Acknowledgments

We thank K. Aoki, A. Matsumoto-Oda, R. Oda, and M. Seki for helping with data collection during the pilot phase of the research. Y. Nagai, Y. Kitamura, K. Atsuda, and T. Hino also helped with data collection. We also thank three reviewers for their comments. This research was supported in part by the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B), 18770217.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyoku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Saori Nojo & Yasuo Ihara

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan

    Satoshi Tamura

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  1. Saori Nojo
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  2. Satoshi Tamura
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  3. Yasuo Ihara
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Correspondence to Yasuo Ihara.

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Nojo, S., Tamura, S. & Ihara, Y. Human Homogamy in Facial Characteristics. Hum Nat 23, 323–340 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-012-9146-8

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