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. 2011;40(10):1254-6.
doi: 10.1068/p7057.

Preference for symmetry: only on mars?

Kathrine Shepherd  1 , Moshe Bar
Affiliations

Preference for symmetry: only on mars?

Kathrine Shepherd et al. Perception. 2011.

Abstract

Preference for symmetry is a robust bias found throughout the animal kingdom. In humans, the bias for symmetry has been documented in numerous domains, including faces and visual patterns. The function of this potent aesthetic bias still eludes us, but prominent accounts focus on its role in mate selection and perceptual fluency. Previous studies have shown that both males and females find symmetrical faces to be more attractive, but here we show that the preference for symmetry in neutral stimuli (ie everyday and meaningless visual objects) is, on the other hand, unique to male participants. Our findings indicate that symmetry preference cannot be explained exclusively by perceptual or computational efficiency, because such an account is domain-independent yet females did not show any bias for the objects tested here. Further studies are needed to elucidate the utility of the male preference for visual object symmetry.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
[In color online, see http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/p7057] Examples of symmetric versus asymmetric stimulus pairs for both abstract objects (a) and real-world objects (b). (c) Percentage of ‘prefer’ responses for the symmetric over asymmetric objects in the different conditions and across gender. (d) Percentage of ‘prefer’ responses for symmetric objects in abstract and real-world objects as a function of gender. Values above the dotted 50% line indicate preference for symmetry.
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