The width of the face predicts the aggressiveness of men (not women). They put it to the test in the laboratory (15%) and on hockey players (9-29%) in the following study in which several experiments were carried out.
Taken together, these findings suggest that the relationship between the width and height of the sexually dimorphic face may be an ‘honest sign’ of a propensity for aggressive behavior.
Sexual dimorphism
Men with higher testosterone levels tend to be more prone to wider faces and larger cheekbones . In the aforementioned study, we wanted to verify whether this correlation indeed exists by means of a questionnaire and observing the level of aggressiveness during a behavioral task and in a natural environment (university team and professional ice hockey team).
In Study 1 , men who had a higher face width to height ratio had higher mastery scores and were more reactively aggressive compared to women.
An example of the measurements used for the facial width-height ratio. The vertical lines represent the distance between the left and right zygion (most lateral point of the zygomatic arch). The horizontal lines represent the distance between the upper lip and the forehead (upper facial height).Individual differences in the relationship between face width and height predicted reactive aggression in men, but not in women (predicted 15% of the variance).
In Study 2 (male varsity hockey players) and Study 3 (male professional hockey players), individual differences in the relationship between face width and height were positively related to aggressive behavior as measured by the number of penalty minutes per game obtained during a season (predicted 29 and 9% of the variance, respectively).