Psychologists then presented the same faces to another set of 50 heterosexual female students. Some of these faces, however, were split horizontally, with the upper and lower halves shifted in opposite directions.

The scientists asked these participants to rate the overall attractiveness of the split and whole faces on the same scale. By dividing the faces in half and disrupting the test subjects' total facial processing, the researchers believed that women would rely more on specific facial features to determine attractiveness.

They thought that this sexual route would come into play particularly when the participants saw faces that were suited as hypothetical dates rather than lab partners. The study validated their insights.

The bottom line is that, at a statistically significant level, splitting the faces in half made the women rely on a purely sexual strategy of processing male faces. The study verifies that these two ways of assessing facial appeal exist and can be separated for women.

These findings appeared in the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.