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Rethinking the Golden Ratio: Defining the Ideal Facial Aesthetic Standards for Mixed-Race Males
Varoon Phondge
*1, Pooja Deshpande
1, Maya Dornbrand-Lo
1, Leisha Devisetti
2, Nicole Margiotta
1, Bruno Pillari
1, Nitya Devisetti
1, Kometh Thawanyarat
1, Edward Lee
1, Alex Wong
11New Jersey Medical School, Morganville, NJ; 2University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Background: Celebrity facial aesthetics significantly influence cosmetic surgery, with beauty ideals varying across ethnicities. While the "golden ratio" (1.618) has been considered an ideal benchmark, its relevance to mixed-race males is underexplored. This study assesses how mixed-race male celebrity facial proportions align with the golden ratio to guide more inclusive aesthetic standards in plastic surgery.
Methods: Mixed-race male celebrities were identified from TC Candler's "Top 100 Most Handsome Faces" (2013-2023), which features global celebrities selected based on public voting and evaluations of symmetry, aesthetic appeal, and attractiveness. Inclusion criteria required individuals with two or more ethnicities and professional photos from Getty Images (frontal profile, age 20-60, visible facial contour, and minimal expression). Dlib software identified 11 facial landmarks, with one additional point added manually. Custom Python scripts calculated 11 vertical and 6 horizontal ratios. A one-sample, two-tailed t-test compared each to the golden ratio (1.618), and eye width to intercanthal distance was tested against the 0.33 benchmark.
Results: Of the 447 celebrities identified from the 2013 to 2023 "Top 100 Most Handsome Faces" videos, 379 met the image criteria, with 24 (6.3%) being mixed-race. 9 of 11 vertical ratios and 5 of 6 horizontal ratios significantly differed from the golden ratio (p < 0.05). However, the overall average vertical (1.65 ± 0.277), horizontal (1.62 ± 0.252), and combined (1.65 ± 0.272) ratios were not statistically different from 1.618.
Conclusion: Although the average facial ratio was not statistically significant from the golden ratio, significant deviations in most vertical and horizontal ratios suggest the need for tailored aesthetic standards for mixed-race males. These findings underscore the limitations of universal beauty standards and support the development of mixed-specific benchmarks, with larger studies needed to better assess cultural perceptions of attractiveness.
