Do men look more similar to each other than women?

Question

Looking at an awards ceremony, I find that all the men look the same to me. Whereas all the women look very "unique". I wonder if this is a psychological thing in which, because I am male, I am less interested in the particular characteristics of males than females.

It makes me wonder do females think most men look the same? In Western society it is usuall the men who do the chasing so it would make sense for women to at least appear to be distinct?

I suspect men's uniqueness might present itself more in facial hair which because mostly it's socially accceptable to be clean shaven then the uniqueness doesn't come through.

Answer 1

Any apparent difference between sexes probably has more to due with the perspective of the viewer than the physiological characteristics of the group. Males and females are both highly diverse in appearance. The particular balance of physiological diversity among a population will depend on the ethnic balance, cultural norms (e.g., having facial or head hair at a certain length), dress, etc.

People recognise different members of their own race more easily than of other races (well-established effect): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect

Finally, there's limited evidence suggesting an own-gender effect as well, potentially driven by how people see hair: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691803000520?via%3Dihub (Wright et al., 2003, 'An own gender bias and the importance of hair in face recognition').

In sum: this is probably in the eye of the beholder.