«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE AND IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»- ANDY WARHOL

«To the likely dismay of those who argue beauty is in the eye of the beholder, biostatisticians say they had devised a computer program to predict whether a face will be considered attractive. The software crunches a mass of calculations on the geometry and symmetry of the face, including so-called "golden ratios" of proportions between the eyes, nose, ears and lips singled out in previous research into the mystery of beauty.The results startlingly confirmed recommendations followed by artists dating back to the Renaissance for drawing beautiful faces.

These "neo-classical canons" stipulate, for instance, that the width of the face must be four times the width of the nose, and the height of the forehead, length of the nose and height of the lower face must all be of equal length.Out of six "neo-classical canons" used in the program, only one - a guideline about the proportion between the mouth and width of the nose - turned out to be wrong.

Smaller chins, smaller noses and a larger distance between the eyes are attractive in women, the study found.Intriguingly, a smaller width of the mouth was also found to be a desirable trait in women, a finding that contrasts with the "trout" lips favoured by the fashion business today. Among men, an attractive face was divided into equal vertical thirds, and had symmetry between the upper tips of the lips and the nose.»

Sunday Independant
March 16 2008