Hunter Eyes vs Prey Eyes: Which Is More Attractive?

Hunter eyes vs prey eyes, feature by feature: what each label means, what the research says is more attractive in men and in women, and how to measure yours.

Written by Dean Robertson

Published Oct 12, 2026 8 min read 24 references

Hunter eyes is community shorthand for deep-set eyes with a positive tilt and little visible upper eyelid. Prey eyes is the community's contrast term for rounder, more exposed eyes. The community considers hunter eyes more attractive, especially in men, and the research backs their upward tilt. But open, larger eyes rate well too, so the most attractive eyes mix both.

Within the community, hunter eyes are considered the more attractive of the two, especially for men. The research agrees on part of that: an upward tilt rates well. But it disagrees on the rest. Open, larger eyes, the prey side, rate well too, and the most attractive eyes in the research borrow from both.

No study has tested hunter eyes and prey eyes as types. What has been studied is each part of eye shape the labels bundle together, so below, each one gets the research behind it.

Hunter and prey eyes at a glance

Hunter eyes is community shorthand for deep-set eyes with a positive tilt and little visible upper eyelid. Prey eyes is the community’s contrast term for rounder, more exposed eyes. Within the community, hunter eyes are also described as almond-shaped, under a prominent brow ridge, with an intense, piercing gaze, and prey eyes as giving a softer, more innocent look. Each label is really five features at once:

Feature	Hunter / prey	What the research says
Tilt	Positive canthal tilt / neutral or negative canthal tilt	Upward tilt rated better in real faces[1]
Eye size and openness	Narrow / large and open	Larger eyes rated better in women[2]
Brow	Low and flat / higher and arched	A lower brow reads masculine;[3] raising it lowered ratings[4]
Upper eyelid	Little showing / more showing	Less eyelid showing in attractive female eyes[5]
Depth	Deep-set / level with the face	A male trait;[6] no study rates it

Which is more attractive?

Hunter eyes, on tilt; prey eyes, on openness. In the research, the most attractive eyes are upturned like hunter eyes and open like prey eyes.

Tilt goes to hunter eyes. A positive canthal tilt means the outer corner of the eye sits higher than the inner corner. Beauty-contest entrants, men and women, had more upward eye tilt than young adults who hadn’t entered,[1] and in rated photos of young women, the most attractive had the most upward tilt.[7] Only the natural kind counts: lifting the outer corner past its natural position made faces rate lower.[4]
Openness goes to prey eyes, at least in women. The same female face was rated more attractive with larger eyes,[2] and the most attractive female eyes combined a tall visible iris with an upward slant to the eyes and brows.[8] Open eyes also read as more intelligent,[9] and less open eyes as more tired.[10]
The low brow is about dominance, not looks. A brow sitting low over the eye reads as dominant, which is why a slight chin-down head tilt makes a face look more dominant.[11] That held across cultures.[12] Dominance isn’t attractiveness, though: raising the brow lowered attractiveness ratings, and we found no study showing that lowering it raises them.[4]
Eye white is mostly a wash. Eyes with more visible white were rated slightly better, but those eyes were also larger overall and the effect was small.[13] In real faces, the size of the eye white had no link to attractiveness at all.[14]

Hunter (or predator) eyes and prey eyes take their names from animal biology, not attractiveness research. A study of land animals found that vertical slit pupils mark ambush predators and horizontal pupils mark prey animals,[15] but every human has round pupils, so it says nothing about human eyes.

Hunter eyes vs prey eyes in men

The general consensus in the looksmaxxing community is that hunter eyes are the male ideal, and the research supports two of the features that make them up: the upward tilt,[1] and the low brow, which is what men’s faces have. Men have a smaller gap between brow and eyelid than women,[3] and more deep-set eyes.[6]

What the research doesn’t support is that big, open eyes cost a man anything. Men with large eyes were rated more attractive in a 1990 study, alongside prominent cheekbones and a big smile.[16] A 2023 study of real faces found no link between eye shape and attractiveness, in men or women,[14] and in a ranking task, brow thickness and jaw prominence mattered more than eye size.[17]

So for men, the research backs the upward tilt of hunter eyes, and the low brow adds a masculine, dominant read. The eye opening itself is not a liability.

Hunter eyes vs prey eyes in women

Women can have hunter eyes, and the upward tilt rates well in women too.[7] But within the community, rounder, more open “doe” eyes are generally considered more attractive in women, and here the research agrees: larger eyes were rated more attractive on the same female face.[2]

The ideal the research describes for women is a mix. The most attractive female eyes had a tall visible iris and an upward slant to both the eyes and the brows,[8] with relatively little upper eyelid showing.[5] That’s open like prey eyes, and upturned and hooded like hunter eyes.

Eye shape across ethnicities

Eye shape varies by population, and the hunter eyes and prey eyes labels were built on one kind of face. Every population measured has an upward tilt on average, but how much differs: averages ran from about 2.5° to 8° across three groups in one study.[18] Another found the same, with the average differing by population.[19]

So a tilt that is ordinary in one population is unusually high or low in another. Nothing in the research ranks one population’s eye shape above another’s. Read your own eye shape against the features, not against a label drawn from one group’s faces.

How to tell hunter eyes from prey eyes

Measure your eye shape feature by feature, not by label. Our canthal tilt calculator reads your tilt from a photo; the other features you can judge in a mirror:

Tilt. Take a straight-on photo at eye level and run it through the calculator. Keep your head level: dipping the chin makes the tilt look more positive, and raising it makes it look flatter.[20]
Openness. How much of the iris shows, top to bottom.
Upper eyelid. How much eyelid shows between the lashes and the crease with your eyes relaxed.
Brow. How far your brow sits above the eye, and whether it’s flat or arched.

Our guide to canthal tilt covers what’s normal and how a photo can mislead you.

Can you change your eye shape?

Partly. Some of your eye shape is fixed: the tilt and the depth are set by bone and tendon; the brow, the eyelid and how open your eyes appear can change.

Brow. Botulinum toxin can lift the outer brow by about 0.4 to 4.8 mm,[21] which moves the brow away from the hunter eyes look, not toward it.
How rested your eyes look. Less open eyes and dark circles make a face look tired,[10] which sleep fixes.
Excess lid skin. In older patients with excess upper-lid skin, eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) made them look younger and more attractive.[22]
The tilt itself, the feature of hunter eyes with the strongest research behind it. Lateral canthoplasty cuts the tendon at the outer corner and reattaches it higher. It’s hardmaxxing with real risks: a misshapen corner, the change not holding, and a lower lid that turns outward.[23] Choose a qualified oculoplastic surgeon.

Frequently asked questions

Why are hunter eyes considered more attractive?

Mainly the upward tilt, which rates better in real faces,[1] and the low brow, which reads as masculine and dominant.[3][11] No study links narrow eyes to attractiveness, and in women open eyes rate better.[2]

Can women have hunter eyes?

Yes. Upward-tilted eyes are attractive in women too,[7] and the most attractive female eyes in one study combined that tilt with a tall, open eye.[8]

Which celebrities are said to have hunter eyes?

Lists of hunter eyes celebrities copied between sites usually name Sean O’Pry, Cillian Murphy and Ian Somerhalder among men, and Adriana Lima, Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox among women. The same lists put Zooey Deschanel, Emma Stone and Amanda Seyfried on the prey side. These are community assignments made from styled photos, not measurements, and the lists disagree with each other.

Are hunter eyes genetic?

Partly. A genetic study of 7,569 Koreans found gene variants linked to eye shape.[24] No study has looked at hunter eyes as a type, and how rested your eyes appear isn’t fixed: less open eyes read as more tired.[5]

Can mewing give you hunter eyes?

No. No trial shows that mewing or eye exercises change eye shape; we searched PubMed for mewing trials on October 8, 2026 and found none. The tilt and the depth that define hunter eyes are set by bone and tendon.

Do humans have predator or prey eyes?

Neither, in the animal sense. In land animals, vertical slit pupils mark ambush predators and horizontal pupils mark prey, but human pupils are round.[15] The community’s terms borrow the animal names for a look, not a biology.

Can prey eyes become hunter eyes?

Not the bone or the tilt, without surgery such as canthoplasty.[23] How open and rested your eyes look can change, and an open eye is not a disadvantage: in women it rates better,[2] and in men it’s a weak factor next to the brow and jaw.[17]

References

[1] Sforza, C., Dolci, C., Grandi, G., Tartaglia, G. M., Laino, A., & Ferrario, V. F.. Comparison of soft-tissue orbital morphometry in attractive and normal Italian subjects — The Angle Orthodontist , 2015 . ↩
[2] Geldart, S., Maurer, D., & Carney, K.. Effects of eye size on adults' aesthetic ratings of faces and 5-month-olds' looking times — Perception , 1999 . ↩
[3] Campbell, R., Benson, P. J., Wallace, S. B., et al.. More about brows: how poses that change brow position affect perceptions of gender — Perception , 1999 . ↩
[4] Kempa, J., Kasielska-Trojan, A., Gabryszewski, M., et al.. Understanding the impact of eyebrow and lateral canthal height on the perception of character traits: A rating-based analysis of 2081 participants — Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery , 2025 . ↩
[5] Vaca, E. E., Bricker, J. T., Helenowski, I., et al.. Identifying Aesthetically Appealing Upper Eyelid Topographic Proportions — Aesthetic Surgery Journal , 2019 . ↩
[6] Solazzo, R., Gibelli, D. M., Alderighi, A., et al.. How Sex Shapes Facial Morphology in Adults: A 3D Geometric Morphometric Study — Diagnostics , 2026 . ↩
[7] Patel, A. A., Garg, S. P., Wan, R., et al.. Periorbital Measurements of Attractiveness in Young Black Women: An Anthropometric Approach — Journal of Craniofacial Surgery , 2026 . ↩
[8] Prantl, L., Heidekrueger, P. I., Broer, P. N., et al.. Female eye attractiveness - Where beauty meets science — Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery , 2019 . ↩
[9] Talamas, S. N., Mavor, K. I., Axelsson, J., et al.. Eyelid-openness and mouth curvature influence perceived intelligence beyond attractiveness — Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 2016 . ↩
[10] Holding, B. C., Sundelin, T., Cairns, P., et al.. The effect of sleep deprivation on objective and subjective measures of facial appearance — Journal of Sleep Research , 2019 . ↩
[11] Witkower, Z., & Tracy, J. L.. A Facial-Action Imposter: How Head Tilt Influences Perceptions of Dominance From a Neutral Face — Psychological Science , 2019 . ↩
[12] Witkower, Z., Hill, A. K., Koster, J., et al.. Is a downwards head tilt a cross-cultural signal of dominance? Evidence for a universal visual illusion — Scientific Reports , 2022 . ↩
[13] Boyer-Brosseau, M., Rigoulot, S., & Hétu, S.. Scleral exposure influences social judgments of trustworthiness, attractiveness, sociability, and social rank in White faces — PLOS ONE , 2026 . ↩
[14] Danel, D. P., Perea-Garcia, J. O., Lewandowski, Z., et al.. Is there no beauty in sexually dimorphic eyes? Facial attractiveness and White Europeans ocular morphology-Brief communication — PLOS ONE , 2023 . ↩
[15] Banks, M. S., Sprague, W. W., Schmoll, J., Parnell, J. A., & Love, G. D.. Why do animal eyes have pupils of different shapes? — Science Advances , 2015 . ↩
[16] Cunningham, M. R., Barbee, A. P., & Pike, C. L.. What do women want? Facialmetric assessment of multiple motives in the perception of male facial physical attractiveness — Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 1990 . ↩
[17] Mogilski, J. K., & Welling, L. L. M.. The Relative Contribution of Jawbone and Cheekbone Prominence, Eyebrow Thickness, Eye Size, and Face Length to Evaluations of Facial Masculinity and Attractiveness: A Conjoint Data-Driven Approach — Frontiers in Psychology , 2018 . ↩
[18] Fry, C. L., Naugle, T. C., Cole, S. A., et al.. The Latino Eyelid: Anthropometric Analysis of a Spectrum of Findings — Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery , 2017 . ↩
[19] Gao, T., Guo, Y., Rokohl, A. C., et al.. Racial and sexual differences of eyebrow and eyelid morphology: 3D analysis in young Caucasian and Chinese populations — Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery , 2025 . ↩
[20] Vaca, E. E., Bricker, J. T., Mioton, L. M., Fagien, S., & Alghoul, M. S.. The Influence of Sagittal Head Tilt on Periorbital Appearance: Implications for Clinical Photography and the Evaluation of Postoperative Results — Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum , 2022 . ↩
[21] Jabbour, S., Awaida, C., Kechichian, E., et al.. Botulinum Toxin for Eyebrow Shaping: A Systematic Review — Dermatologic Surgery , 2017 . ↩
[22] Bater, K. L., Ishii, M., Nellis, J. C., et al.. A Dual Approach to Understanding Facial Perception Before and After Blepharoplasty — JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery , 2018 . ↩
[23] Kim, Y. J., Lee, K. H., Choi, H. L., & Jeong, E. C.. Cosmetic Lateral Canthoplasty: Preserving the Lateral Canthal Angle — Archives of Plastic Surgery , 2016 . ↩
[24] Cha, S., Lim, J. E., Park, A. Y., et al.. Identification of five novel genetic loci related to facial morphology by genome-wide association studies — BMC Genomics , 2018 . ↩