Bright, clear eyes often give the impression of youth, energy and health. Red or yellow eyes can indicate fatigue or illness. Blue eyes are often romanticized in movies, paintings, and popular culture. And the “white of the eye” is usually considered the most attractive when it is as white and clear as possible. But in our recent research, we discovered that the story is not so simple.
In our studywe examined this question on a large and diverse set of faces. We studied over 1,000 faces from several culturally distinct populations and measured subtle differences in the eye region. We looked at the color of the iris, as well as the color of the visible tissue around the iris, often called the white of the eye or sclera. Technically, this visible area is part of the peri-iridial tissue.
We then examined whether these eye features predicted ratings attractivenessfemininity and masculinity. Raters rated faces from their own population. This is important because people are usually familiar with the range of faces they see around them. What appears normal, attractive, or unusual may depend in part on local face variation and cultural experience.
One of the most important findings of our study was that eye color was more important for female faces than for male faces. In women, slightly darker whites of the eyes were associated with higher femininity. Furthermore, since more female faces were also rated as attractive, this suggests that the color of the eye region may influence attractiveness in part by altering the femininity of the face. In other words, when it comes to eyes, lighter isn’t always better. Thus, the eye area can affect attractiveness not only by making the face look healthy or unhealthy, but also by making it more or less feminine.
The pattern was weaker for male faces. Eye color did not clearly or consistently predict attractiveness or masculinity. This suggests that the color of the eye region may play a more specific role in judgments of women’s attractiveness and femininity than in judgments of men’s attractiveness and masculinity.
This does not mean that unhealthy looking eyes are attractive. That would be a false conclusion. Red, yellow, angry or tired eyes can still leave a negative impression. Rather, the point is that the connection between eye color and attractiveness is more subtle than people think. The most attractive or feminine look can come from a more natural balance rather than maximum whiteness.
Iris tells a different story
the iris, or colored part of the eye, showed a slightly different pattern than the whites of the eye. Across the entire sample, women with less yellow sclera or blue irises were rated as more attractive. But when we looked at individual populations, this pattern was not equally strong everywhere. The clearest evidence came from Turkish and Czech female samples, where blue irises were associated with high attractiveness.
These cultural differences are important. In the Turkish sample, which included blue-eyed women, there was a relatively large difference in iris lightness. The Colombian sample also had significant variation in iris color, reflecting the population’s mixed European, indigenous, African, and mestizo ancestry.
In contrast, in the Vietnamese, Iranian, and Cameroonian specimens, the iris color is mostly in the brown range, with little or no change to blue, green, or hazel. There were some changes in India, but the irises were still very dark. In these samples, the effect of lighter or blue irises was weaker or less pronounced.
So, while iris color may influence attractiveness, it does not function as a universal beauty rule. Blue eyes are often romanticized in popular culture as rare, beautiful, mysterious, or especially desirable. But our findings suggest a more nuanced picture: iris color matters when there is enough local variation to be socially salient.
This is different from the white of the eye finding. Finding the iris refers to the colored part of the eye. A scleral or peri-iridial finding refers to the visible tissue around the iris. Both are part of the eye region, but they contribute to first impressions in different ways.
Beauty is not a trait
People often want simple rules: blue eyes are attractive, white sclera is attractive, symmetry is attractive, feminine feminine faces and masculine masculine faces are attractive. But the perception of a real face is more complicated. The brain does not evaluate each feature separately and then add them. It reads the whole face. This is why cross-cultural studies are important. Humans have many basic perceptual tendencies, but we also learn from the faces around us. Familiarity, culture, environment, and local variation all shape what is typical, attractive, or unusual.
Author’s note: My next book, The Psychology of Attraction and Aesthetics: How We Perceive Beauty in People and Works of Artstudies the science of beauty, attractionand aesthetics: why we are drawn to certain faces, bodies, artworks, patterns, and designs, and how psychology, biology, culture, and the brain shape these preferences.
