Short Communication Extraversion predicts individual differences in women’s face preferences Lisa L.M. Welling a, * , Lisa M. DeBruine a , Anthony C. Little b , Benedict C. Jones a a School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK b School of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK article info Article history: Received 18 March 2009 Received in revised form 24 June 2009 Accepted 29 June 2009 Available online 22 August 2009 Keywords: Extraversion Masculinity preferences Mate quality Face preferences abstract Extraversion is positively associated with various indices of women’s mate quality (e.g., facial symmetry and attractiveness). Since such indices are thought to predict variation in women’s preferences for mas- culine men, we investigated the relationships between each of the ‘Big 5’ personality factors and women’s preferences for facial masculinity. Extraversion, but not the other four personality factors, was positively correlated with women’s preferences for masculinity in men’s, but not women’s, faces. Additionally, extraversion mediated the positive relationship between women’s self-rated attractiveness and their preferences for masculinity in men’s faces, suggesting that extraversion may play a role in condition- dependent mate preferences. Unexpectedly, openness to experience was associated with women’s pref- erences for femininity in faces of both sexes and this association was independent of that between extra- version and women’s preferences for masculine men. This is the first study that we know of to implicate personality traits in individual differences in women’s preferences for masculine men. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Masculine facial characteristics are positively associated with indices of men’s health (e.g., Thornhill & Gangestad, 2006), but are also associated with negative traits that are not desirable in a mate. For example, men with masculine facial characteristics are more interested in pursuing short-term relationships and are per- ceived by women as less likely to be good parents than are men with feminine facial characteristics (Boothroyd, Jones, Burt, DeBru- ine, & Perrett, 2008; Perrett et al., 1998). Many researchers have suggested that individual differences in how women resolve this tradeoff between the costs and benefits associated with choosing a masculine partner will give rise to variation in women’s mascu- linity preferences (e.g., Fink & Penton-Voak, 2002). Women’s own mate quality is one likely source of variation in masculinity preferences (Fink & Penton-Voak, 2002; Little, Burt, Penton-Voak, & Perrett, 2001). Indeed, women’s self-rated attrac- tiveness is positively associated with the strength of their prefer- ences for masculinity in men’s faces (Little et al., 2001) and voices (Vukovic et al., 2008). Furthermore, women with attractive faces and body shapes also demonstrate stronger preferences for facial masculinity than relatively unattractive women do (Penton-Voak et al., 2003). Such condition-dependent preferences are potentially adaptive if attractive women are better able to attract and/or retain masculine mates than relatively unattractive women are (Little et al., 2001; Penton-Voak et al., 2003; Vukovic et al., 2008). Surprisingly, very little research has investigated whether per- sonality factors predict women’s face preferences. However, recent research into the physical and behavioral correlates of extraversion leads to the hypothesis that extraversion may predict women’s pref- erences for masculine men. Extraversion, but not neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness or conscientiousness, is pos- itively associated with symmetry in women’s faces (Fink, Neave, Manning, & Grammer, 2005; Pound, Penton-Voak, & Brown, 2007). That symmetry is a putative measure of developmental stability (Møller & Swaddle, 1997) raises the possibility that extraversion may be an index of women’s mate quality. Indeed, extraversion, but not the other ‘Big 5’ personality factors, is positively associated with women’s social status (Anderson, John, Keltner, & Kring, 2001). Extraversion is also correlated with women’s facial attractiveness (Penton-Voak, Pound, Little, & Perrett, 2006). These findings, to- gether with those for condition-dependent masculinity preferences, raise the possibility that extraversion may be positively correlated with women’s preferences for masculine men. We tested for positive correlations between women’s prefer- ences for masculinity in men’s faces and the ‘Big 5’ personality fac- tors (extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness), hypothesizing that extra- version, but not the other personality factors, would predict mas- culinity preferences. We also assessed women’s preferences for masculinity in women’s faces in order to test whether the pre- dicted relationship between preferences and extraversion is spe- cific to attractiveness judgments of potential mates, or if it also 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.06.030 * Corresponding author. Address: Face Research Laboratory, School of Psychol- ogy, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. Tel.: +44 1224 272000. E-mail address: lisa.welling@abdn.ac.uk (L.L.M. Welling). Personality and Individual Differences 47 (2009) 996–998 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid