Methods: 48 subjects from 3 ethnic groups; “Afrocaribbean”, “Caucasian”, and “Oriental” (8 males and 8 females in age group 18-33 years) were included in the investigation. Three panels of 36 persons; 12 laymen, 12 maxillofacial surgeons, and 12 orthodontists from the same three ethnic backgrounds as the subjects (2 males & 2 females from each ethnic group in each assessment panel), ranked the subjects in the order of beauty, i.e., the most beautiful subject was ranked as number 1 and the least beautiful as number 8.
Results: the three panels showed a broad agreement in their perceptions of facial beauty. Rank correlation was calculated between the types of panels both within and between the three groups and showed a high degree of correlation (P=.821), indicating broad agreement in ranking for all 48 subjects. The coefficient of variation in ranking for each subject and panel type, and parametric and non parametric tests showed no statistically significant differences between panels, gender and ethnic groups. The agreement was even more consistent regarding the absence of beauty. The difference between the 12 subjects (male and female) with the highest mean rank and the twelve with the lowest mean rank was highly significant (p<.001). Disagreement appeared to be more about the subjects in the middle.
Conclusions: this study showed that a universal basis exists for judgment of facial beauty. The subjects awarded as the most beautiful in the Afrocaribbean and Oriental ethnic groups had very similar facial features to Caucasian. Caucasian facial features were considered to be the most beautiful.