Men prefer natural lips on women over ‘fake’ pouty ones, study reveals
Au naturel, please.
Men find “natural-looking” lips most attractive on women, even as plumped-up pouts continue to dominate social media, according to new research out of Australia.
Scientists at the University of Sydney showed 32 students — 16 men and 16 women — a series of computer-generated faces with varying lip sizes.
Each face was presented with seven different lip versions, ranging from subtle and thin to character-like and inflated — and participants rated each image multiple times for attractiveness.
The result? Male participants overwhelmingly chose “natural” lips as the most appealing on female faces.
Meanwhile, ladies rated “fuller” lips higher — particularly when judging other women.
Across the board, both male and female participants preferred thinner lips on male faces — suggesting that gender plays a major role in how we assess attractiveness in others, particularly when it comes to lips.
This may explain why cosmetic lip procedures, often using hyaluronic acid, have skyrocketed in popularity among women — even if they don’t appeal to the opposite sex.
According to GlobeNewswire, the worldwide market for lip fillers is expected to expand at an annual rate of 3.6% from 2024 through 2034.
But the Aussie researchers issued a warning: subjection to overly plumped lips could spark a dangerous cycle of beauty dysmorphia.
“Ultimately, such a process would culminate in lip dysmorphia,” the study authors wrote.
This describes a skewed perception of oneself, where we might fixate on changing a characteristic we mistakenly think is defective, even though it was perfectly fine initially.
“It follows that, in the real world, when people are seeking to permanently modify their appearance with surgery… over time, they will visually adapt to the new shape or size of their modified features, and this will likely normalize their definition of attractiveness and motivate further surgery,” they added.
Lip filler could also be dangerous — as some people have experienced allergic reactions to the cosmetic procedure.
A Brazilian woman considered legal action after claiming she “almost died” from a horrifying allergy to lip filler she got done at a dentist’s office in João Pessoa, Paraiba State.
So while duck lips may dominate your feed, natural still rules the heart — and the data backs it up.
