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Whether you prefer pretty boys to rugged types, or strong-featured women to doe-eyed beauties, may reveal more about you than you realize.

R. Elisabeth Cornwell, a researcher at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, and her colleagues at the Perception Lab, have developed software that subtly tweaks facial features to produce more masculine or feminine versions of the same face.

In a study presented at the Human Behavior and Evolution Society’s annual meeting earlier this year, Cornwell discovered a link between the age of sexual maturation and face-shape preference.

She found that men who chose hyper feminine female faces – characterized by larger eyes and smaller noses – were more likely to have reached puberty sooner and lost their virginity earlier.

While, women who became sexually active at a younger age opted for hyper masculine men, those with squarer chins and wider jaws.

Cornwell speculates these preferences could reflect social status, since very male or female faces are often considered more attractive. She thinks adolescents who mature earlier have the first pick in the dating pool, so they may cultivate a taste for the more prized faces.

This would contradict previous studies that have found that humans seek out partners with similar features as themselves.

Cornwell also believes that sex hormone levels could influence face preferences, and is planning to measure hormone concentrations directly in a follow-up study.

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