FWHR (Facial Width-to-Height Ratio): What It Says About Your Face

FWHR, the facial width-to-height ratio, is your face's width from cheekbone to cheekbone divided by the height of your upper face, from the upper lip to the brow. A higher FWHR means a wider, shorter mid-face. It became famous because studies linked wider faces to how dominant and aggressive men look — and, in a few studies, to how they behave. The catch: many of those findings are small, mixed or hard to replicate, so FWHR describes how a face is perceived far better than what a person is like.

Below: how to measure your FWHR, the studies behind the hype, what they don't show, and what actually changes how wide your face looks.

What is FWHR?

FWHR compares two distances on a front-facing face:

Measurement	From	To
Width	the widest point of the left cheekbone	the widest point of the right cheekbone
Height	the top of the upper lip	the brow line (some studies use the top of the eyelids)

FWHR = width ÷ height.

Because both measurements come from the same photo, the units cancel out — pixels or millimeters give the same ratio. Different research groups place the height points slightly differently, though, so only compare numbers measured the same way.

FWHR is related to, but not the same as, the midface ratio, which compares the distance between the pupils with the distance from the pupils to the upper lip. Both get bigger when the middle of the face is wide and short.

How to measure your FWHR

1. Take a neutral, straight-on photo. Face the camera at eye level, about 1.5 m (5 ft) away, using zoom rather than holding the phone close. Mouth closed, no smile, head level.
2. Find the cheekbones. Mark the widest point of your face at cheekbone level on each side and measure the distance between them.
3. Mark the height. Measure from the top of your upper lip (center) straight up to the line of your brows.
4. Divide width by height.

Repeat on two or three photos and average them — a few pixels of difference at the cheekbones moves the result noticeably. An AI face analysis places the landmarks automatically, which removes most of that guesswork.

What the famous studies found

FWHR research took off in the late 2000s. These are the studies most people mean when they talk about it:

• Hockey players (2008). Justin Carré and Cheryl McCormick measured university and professional ice hockey players and found that players with higher FWHR spent more time in the penalty box — a rough real-world measure of aggressive play.
• CEOs (2011). Elaine Wong, Margaret Ormiston and Michael Haselhuhn measured the faces of Fortune 500 CEOs and found that companies led by wider-faced CEOs showed better financial performance in their sample.
• Trust games (2010). Michael Stirrat and David Perrett found that in an economic game, men with wider faces were more likely to exploit their partner's trust — and that people trusted wider-faced men less.
• Perception. Across many experiments, people judge wider-faced men as more dominant and more aggressive. A 2015 meta-analysis by Shawn Geniole and colleagues found this link between FWHR and perceived threat to be fairly consistent, and a smaller link with actual aggression in men. These judgments are fast: in a 2006 study, Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov found that people form impressions of traits like trustworthiness and aggressiveness after seeing a face for just a tenth of a second.

Why the science is more mixed than the hype

Here is the part that viral posts leave out:

• The effects are small. Even where the links hold, FWHR explains only a small slice of the differences between people. Plenty of narrow-faced people are dominant and plenty of wide-faced people are gentle.
• The testosterone story is disputed. FWHR is often described as a "testosterone marker". Some studies found a link with men's testosterone levels; others, including a 2016 study by Brenda Bird and colleagues, found none.
• It may not even differ much between the sexes. A 2017 meta-analysis by Robin Kramer found little reliable difference in FWHR between men and women — surprising for a supposed masculinity marker.
• Perception can create its own reality. If people treat wider-faced men as more dominant, those men may end up in situations that reward dominance. That makes cause and effect hard to separate.

So FWHR is a genuinely interesting finding about how faces are read, not a test of personality, income or worth.

What changes how wide your face looks

What you can't change

Your cheekbone width and the height of your upper face are set by bone. No exercise, mewing routine or product changes skeletal proportions in adults.

What changes how it reads

• Body fat. Facial fat adds width at the cheeks and jaw, so FWHR measured on photos shifts with weight. Leaner faces also show more jawline definition.
• Camera distance and angle. Close-up selfies exaggerate the center of the face; tilting the head up or down changes the measured height. Shoot straight on from farther away.
• Facial hair. A beard adds visual width and weight to the lower face, which changes how wide the whole face reads, even though FWHR itself is measured above the lip.
• Expression. Smiling raises the upper lip and changes the cheeks — always measure with a neutral face.

FWHR and attractiveness

Is a high FWHR attractive? It depends on the face and who is looking. Wider mid-faces are often read as more masculine and dominant, which some people find attractive in men, but research on masculine features and attractiveness is mixed — see our guide to facial dimorphism. Overall facial harmony and a healthy, balanced look matter more than any single ratio.

If you want to see how your proportions fit together, an AI face rating looks at many measurements at once. Aesthetica maps your face from one selfie, including proportions and symmetry — photos are encrypted and deleted after analysis.

FAQ

What is a good FWHR?

There is no single "good" number, and values depend on how the height is measured. Higher ratios read as wider and more dominant; lower ratios as narrower and softer. Compare only numbers measured the same way.

How do you calculate FWHR?

Divide the distance between your cheekbones (the widest points of your face) by the distance from the top of your upper lip to your brow line, using a straight-on photo with a neutral expression.

Does FWHR show testosterone levels?

The evidence is mixed. Some studies found a link between FWHR and men's testosterone, but others found none, and FWHR differs surprisingly little between men and women.

Can you increase your FWHR?

Not structurally — it is set by bone. Body fat, facial hair, camera distance and head angle change how wide your face looks in photos, but not your skeleton.

Is FWHR the same as the midface ratio?

No. FWHR compares cheekbone width with the height from lip to brow; the midface ratio compares the distance between the pupils with the distance from the pupils to the upper lip.