A recent study conducted by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany, has found that women are generally perceived as more attractive than men across different cultures. The research highlights what has been described as a "gender attractiveness gap," with female faces consistently receiving higher attractiveness ratings, including from women themselves.

Eugen Wassiliwizky, a lead researcher on the study, explained that the pattern was surprisingly robust. "We see it across cultures. Female faces are evaluated as more attractive than male faces regardless of all the other factors," he said. Notably, the study found that women tend to rate other women as the most attractive, while giving the lowest ratings to male faces.

The findings suggest that facial shape plays a significant role in these perceptions. Generally, men’s faces were observed to be more rectangular, whereas women’s faces tend to have a rounder shape. Both men and women appear to prefer rounder facial features, which may partly explain the preference for female faces observed in the study.

However, the research also noted that this attractiveness gap diminishes with age. By the time individuals reach their eighties, the difference in perceived attractiveness between male and female faces becomes negligible. Wassiliwizky attributed this change to the convergence of facial characteristics over time, as "male and female faces become more and more similar with age" and "the structural differences shrink."

These findings contribute to a broader understanding of aesthetic preferences and how they might be influenced by biological and cultural factors. The study’s emphasis on cross-cultural consistency underscores the possibility of universal aspects in human perceptions of attractiveness related to facial structure and gender.