Psychologists at New York and Princeton universities found that most women prefer men with more feminine shaped faces and darker skin.
But the study found that men typically like women's faces to be feminine with plump lips and wide eyes, the Daily Mail reported.
For the study, the researchers recruited two groups of men and women and showed them a selection of thousands of computer-generated faces of the opposite sex to rate, which had been manipulated to look either more masculine or feminine.
The computer model tested 50 dimensions of facial features, including nose size, plumpness of lips and facial colouring.
The scientists found that more men want women's faces to have a feminine shape, while women want men's faces to have a feminine shape, but darker skin.
The findings showed that male and female attractiveness are not equal and opposite, said the researchers.
They also found that the appeal of average faces is less straightforward than previously thought.
The study, to be published in the Psychological Science journal, showed that attractiveness is more complex than had been found by previous studies, the researchers said.
While both men and women find average faces attractive, the most average faces are not considered the most attractive, they added.
"This paper helps sort out the uncertainty about whether masculinity is attractive or not in male faces," said lead researcher Christopher Said of New York University.
