From Jessica Rabbit to Daisy Duck, many female cartoon characters have long eyelashes that they love to bat to entice suitors.
But a new study suggests that if you want to look your best, it’s time to bin the long falsies.
Researchers from the University of Plymouth say that an eyelash length equal to one-third of the eye’s width is the most attractive.
‘As eyelashes lengthen, faces are perceived to be more attractive,’ the team wrote in their study.
‘But only up to a point, beyond which the perceived attractiveness of faces begins to fall with increasing eyelash lengths.’
A new study suggests that if you want to look your best, it’s time to bin the long falsies (stock image)
In 2015, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology studied the eyelash lengths of various mammals and found that 22 species had eyelashes measuring around one third of the width of their eyes.
This included humans, snow leopards, camels, and the giant panda.
A follow-up study using a wind tunnel revealed that this length is optimal for diverting air, keeping the eye moist, and stopping dust from hitting our eyes.
However, until now, little research has looked at how the length of our eyelashes affects how attractive we look.
To answer this question, the researchers enlisted 319 participants who were Asian, Black, or White.
These participants were shown four images of faces representing women from four ethnic backgrounds – Asian, Black, Indian, and White.
The women in the images either had no eyelashes, eyelashes measuring around one third of the width of their eyes, or eyelashes measuring around half of the width of their eyes.
Participants were asked to rate how attractive they thought each woman was.
Overall, the results showed that faces where the eyelashes were one third of the width of their eyes were rated the most attractive.
However, the results varied based on the ethnicities of both the participants and the faces.
The women in the images either had no eyelashes, eyelashes measuring around one third of the width of their eyes, or eyelashes measuring around one half of the width of their eyes. Participants were asked to rate how attractive they thought each woman was
For example, Asian participants preferred faces with 20 per cent eyelash lengths, while Black and White participants favoured Asian faces with 40 per cent of the eye’s width.
In addition, White participants found Black faces with 45 per cent eyelash lengths to be the most appealing.
‘The current study has revealed that regardless of the sex or ethnicity of an observer, the effect of eyelash length on the perceived attractiveness of a women’s face follows an inverted-U function, with attractiveness rising then falling with increasing eyelash length,’ the team wrote in their study, published in Scientific Reports.
‘Critically, this pattern is observed for depiction of faces of different ethnicities (and eye colour).’
The study comes shortly after researchers concluded that model Gigi Hadid may have the perfect jawline.
The 28-year-old supermodel, who has a child with former One Direction singer Zayn Malik and has been linked to actor Leonardo DiCaprio, has a jaw angle of 141.9 degrees viewed from the front of her face.
That is close to the ‘perfect’ angle of 142 degrees, according to researchers.
When the model’s face was shown to 32 expert facial surgeons and 16 ordinary people, they unanimously agreed her jawline was neither too steep nor too flat.
Meanwhile an older supermodel, Kate Moss, was found to have a beautiful jaw angle from the front, which 76 per cent of experts and non-experts rated as attractive.