Face analyst claims people are becoming ‘LESS attractive’ with each new generation – thanks to modern diets and evolving sleep patterns
A facial analyst has worked out a theory about why people “become less attractive.”
Shafee Hassan, who founded the facial aesthetics consultancy in Sydney QOVESattempted to answer this question in a recently posted YouTube Short.
The video was prompted by a follower who asked why an old high school yearbook had “(so) many attractive people… was there something in the water?”
In the clip’s caption, which was also posted to TikTok, Hassan explained, “The average person’s face is increasingly disadvantaged by modern diets, sleep patterns, pollutants and orofacial habits, creating a greater disparity between ‘the attractive ones and the unattractive ones. ‘
A facial analyst has put forward a theory as to why it seems people are becoming ‘less attractive’, sparked by a follower’s question about it
He said there were several theories, but the “most intuitive” to him was known as the functional matrix hypothesis, which theorizes that the “development of the face depends on the forces you put on it.”
At the beginning of the video, he asks if anyone has wondered why teenagers or high school students in the 1950s look “so much older” than they do now.
The facial analyst pulls out an example of a young man and points to the student’s “defined” gonion (the top of the lower jaw) and his “projected” zygomatic bone (the zygomatic bone).
“There are multiple theories as to why this is the case, but the one that is most intuitive to me at least is presented in Contemporary Orthodontics by (American orthodontist William) Proffit and colleagues using what is known as the functional matrix hypothesis, Hassan says.
He goes on to explain that it theorizes that the “development of the face depends on the forces you put on it, for the upper and lower jaw,” which are the two features that help someone look “handsome or attractive.”
Hassan says the tongue or “other forces” can affect the development of the jaw, “pushing it down or out” before new bone grows in it.
He claims in the video that a little girl’s sinusitis affected the growth of her lower jaw, with photo examples.
In the clip, he said she was constantly breathing through her mouth and that it wasn’t closed often enough for that body part to “develop properly.”
Concluding the video, the creator added, “Since 70 percent of the Western world has some kind of malocclusion or recession, something like this one, it’s a very good explanation as to why faces become less and less attractive over time.”
Pictured on the left is the functional matrix hypothesis outlined above in Contemporary Orthodontics. To the right is an image showing the movement of the jaw
He claims in the video that a little girl’s sinusitis affected the growth of her lower jaw, with photo examples
Malocclusion is the term used to describe when your teeth are not perfectly aligned, while recession occurs when your gums pull away from your teeth.
About 22 percent of people around the world had an overbite, Colgate reported, citing a global study published by the Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics.
The video has more than 2.3 million views on YouTube and on TikTok, where it was posted in 2022, it has more than 3.2 million views.
And it turned out to be divisive, with many people voicing their opinions on the subject.
“Worth noting everyone looks better on a film camera than on an iPhone, it brings out the features and makes a face look more defined,” said one person.
‘People are certainly not getting uglier. You haven’t seen enough old pictures if you believe this,” another wrote, to which a YouTube user replied, “Exactly lol, I actually think it’s the opposite.”
The video has proven to be divisive, with many people weighing in on their views on the subject
A third person came up with an alternative theory: ‘Beauty bias, the pictures of ugly people are less likely to be seen/published compared to their more attractive counterparts.’
“They don’t look older, they really have kid faces, but they have a grown-up haircut for adults,” someone else added.
“They look older because they have styles that we associate with grandparents, so they automatically look more mature,” one comment read.
Another person wrote, “One thing people don’t think about here is nutrition. Your jaw becomes a lot stronger if your diet consists of whole meat, whole vegetables, whole fruit, etc. Things that you have to chew vigorously. Many people have replaced good home cooking with softer, processed foods and snacks and it’s taking its toll.’