Are human faces more attractive with glasses?

This article investigates whether a glasses frame, which is symmetrically designed, can be used as an accessory to enhance an individual's facial attractiveness and the affective responses. We carry out a series of experiments using 16 prototypical glasses frame, each of which consists of different combinations of design features. The frames are fitted on one male and one female faces selected from the facial portraits of 200 university students. The participants rate the faces with and without wearing the glasses frames with the 7-point Likert scales on the included perceptual measures. The results show that wearing the glasses frames does generally improve facial symmetry. However, the facial attractiveness is not enhanced accordingly. Some designs such as the glasses frames with smaller rims have less impact on facial attractiveness than those with larger rims. To conclude, artificially improving the facial attractiveness requires more than just an enhancement of facial symmetry.