Brown-eyed Men Perceived as Dominant

Both men and women perceive brown-eyed men as more dominant, according to a recent Czech study. Karel Kleisner of Prague’s Charles University conducted the study by asking 40 men and 40 women to rank the dominance of individuals in photos. Half the photos were of men and half of women.

Both men and women ranked the brown-eyed men as more dominant than men with blue eyes. Even more interesting, the same men were ranted as most dominant even when their photographs had been altered to have blue eyes. Men with blue eyes were still ranked lower in dominance, even when their photos had been altered by a computer program to change the eye color to brown. So the participants were not simply reacting to the eye color. There was no difference between rankings of female dominance based on eye color.

In the paper published in the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, researcher Kleisner points out that blue eyes did not exist until about 10,000 years ago. All earlier humans had brown eyes. He theorizes that something in the facial structure of brown-eyed men makes them appear more dominant. In general, the brown-eyed men had wider jaws and bigger noses than the blue-eyed men.

Another possible explanation is that brown-eyed men may actually have higher testosterone levels. At least six different genes are now known to affect eye color, and there may be additional genes that have not yet been uncovered. Dr. Kleisner notes that when genes occur close together on the DNA double-helix, they are likely to occur in the same individuals. An eye-color gene next to a gene controlling testosterone production could be an indicator that men with brown eyes usually have more testosterone.

Environmental factors could also be at work. Studies have shown that blue-eyed boys are more inhibited as preschoolers, although they quickly overcome that social deficit. Kleisner theorizes that social standing can alter hormone balance, which could alter face shape.

Scottish psychologist Benedict Jones points out that further research is necessary, since this is a small sample. The results may not extend to other groups. Several studies have shown that women prefer to mate with high-dominance males, but they prefer low-dominance males as life partners.