Are human preferences for facial symmetry focused on signals of developmental instability?

Leigh W. Simmons; Gillian Rhodes; Marianne Peters; Nicole Koehler

doi:10.1093/beheco/arh099

Are human preferences for facial symmetry focused on signals of developmental instability?

Behavioral Ecology ◽

10.1093/beheco/arh099 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 15 (5) ◽

pp. 864-871 ◽

Cited By ~ 61

Author(s):

Leigh W. Simmons ◽

Gillian Rhodes ◽

Marianne Peters ◽

Nicole Koehler

Keyword(s):

Developmental Instability ◽

Facial Symmetry

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Position within the geographic range, relative local abundance and developmental instability

Ecography ◽

10.1034/j.1600-0587.2000.230504.x ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 23 (5) ◽

pp. 539-546 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

M. Kiflawi ◽

B. J. Enquist ◽

M. A. Jordan

Keyword(s):

Geographic Range ◽

Developmental Instability ◽

Local Abundance

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The effects of facial symmetry and sexually-dimorphic facial proportions on assessments of sexual orientation.

Journal of Social Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology ◽

10.1037/h0099261 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 214-230 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Susan M. Hughes ◽

Robert Bremme

Keyword(s):

Sexual Orientation ◽

Sexually Dimorphic ◽

Facial Symmetry ◽

Facial Proportions

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Fluctuating Asymmetry and Developmental Instability, a Guide to Best Practice

Symmetry ◽

10.3390/sym13010009 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 9

Author(s):

John H. Graham

Keyword(s):

Measurement Error ◽

Best Practices ◽

Environmental Stress ◽

Fluctuating Asymmetry ◽

Best Practice ◽

Developmental Instability ◽

The Past ◽

Size Scaling ◽

Research Designs

Best practices in studies of developmental instability, as measured by fluctuating asymmetry, have developed over the past 60 years. Unfortunately, they are haphazardly applied in many of the papers submitted for review. Most often, research designs suffer from lack of randomization, inadequate replication, poor attention to size scaling, lack of attention to measurement error, and unrecognized mixtures of additive and multiplicative errors. Here, I summarize a set of best practices, especially in studies that examine the effects of environmental stress on fluctuating asymmetry.

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Nature, Nurture, and Noise: Developmental Instability, Fluctuating Asymmetry, and the Causes of Phenotypic Variation

Symmetry ◽

10.3390/sym13071204 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 1204

Author(s):

John H. Graham

Keyword(s):

Fluctuating Asymmetry ◽

Phenotypic Variation ◽

Deterministic Chaos ◽

Monozygotic Twins ◽

Developmental Instability ◽

Nonlinear Feedback ◽

Developmental Variation ◽

Sewall Wright ◽

Developmental Noise ◽

And Behavior

Phenotypic variation arises from genetic and environmental variation, as well as random aspects of development. The genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) components of this variation have been appreciated since at least 1900. The random developmental component (noise) has taken longer for quantitative geneticists to appreciate. Here, I sketch the historical development of the concepts of random developmental noise and developmental instability, and its quantification via fluctuating asymmetry. The unsung pioneers in this story are Hugo DeVries (fluctuating variation, 1909), C. H. Danforth (random variation between monozygotic twins, 1919), and Sewall Wright (random developmental variation in piebald guinea pigs, 1920). The first pioneering study of fluctuating asymmetry, by Sumner and Huestis in 1921, is seldom mentioned, possibly because it failed to connect the observed random asymmetry with random developmental variation. This early work was then synthesized by Boris Astaurov in 1930 and Wilhelm Ludwig in 1932, and then popularized by Drosophila geneticists beginning with Kenneth Mather in 1953. Population phenogeneticists are still trying to understand the origins and behavior of random developmental variation. Some of the developmental noise represents true stochastic behavior of molecules and cells, while some represents deterministic chaos, nonlinear feedback, and symmetry breaking.

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