Facial masculinity does not appear to be a condition-dependent male ornament in humans and does not reflect MHC heterozygosity

Abstract

Facial masculinity is thought to be a condition-dependent male ornament, reflecting immunocompetence in humans. To test this hypothesis, we calculated an objective measure of facial masculinity/femininity using three-dimensional images in a large sample (N = 1,233) of people of European ancestry. We show that facial masculinity is positively correlated with adult height in both males and females. This suggests that variation in growth contributes, at least in part, to variation in facial masculinity, which is characteristic of condition-dependent traits. However, facial masculinity scales with growth similarly in males and females, suggesting that facial masculinity is not specifically a male ornament. Additionally, we measured immunocompetence via heterozygosity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a well known genetic marker of immunity. We show that while height is positively correlated with MHC heterozygosity, facial masculinity is not. Thus, facial masculinity does not reflect immunocompetence measured by MHC heterozygosity in humans as thought previously. Overall, we find no support for the idea that facial masculinity is a condition-dependent male ornament that has evolved to indicate immunocompetence.