Masculine characteristics in men’s faces are often assumed to function as health cues. However, evidence for this assumption from empirical tests is mixed. For example, research on Western women’s face perceptions found that masculinized versions of men’s faces were perceived to be older, but not healthier, than feminized versions. Since research on this topic has focused on Western women’s face perceptions, we investigated the effects of masculinizing face images on Arab women’s perceptions of men’s health (study 1, N = 211) and age (study 2, N = 209). Arab women perceived masculinized versions of male face images to be older, but not healthier, than feminized versions. These results add to a growing body of evidence challenging the assumption that male facial masculinity functions primarily as a health cue.

男性面部的男性特征通常被认为是健康提示。但是，来自经验检验的这一假设的证据参差不齐。例如，对西方女性面部感知的研究发现，男性面孔的男性化版本被认为比女性化版本更年长，但并不健康。由于该主题的研究集中在西方女性的面部感知上，因此我们研究了男性面部图像对阿拉伯女性对男性健康（研究1，N  = 211）和年龄（研究2，N）的感知的影响。 = 209）。阿拉伯妇女认为男性面部图像的男性化版本要比女性化版本大，但不健康。这些结果增加了越来越多的证据，对男性面部阳刚主要起健康提示作用这一假设提出了挑战。