7 Curious Facts Your Appearance Says About You
cientists have declared that physiognomy, the art of reading
character from faces, is a fake science. However some researchers have proven
that a face can deliver very important information about our personality.
Carmen E. Lefevre from the University College London assures us that appearance
is the product of genes, hormones, and lifestyle. This is why a human’s face
can really be a mirror into our soul.
Bright Side put together 7 scientific studies for you which
prove that a human’s face can say something really interesting about their
personality. Even the way people pose for the camera can say a lot about their
character. You will find a bonus in the end that will show that appearances can
be very deceiving.
Scientists have proven the connection between face shape and
dominance. When studying the 2010 World Cup, Keith Welker, from the University
of Colorado Boulder, confirmed that the ratio between the width and height of
the soccer players’ faces could predict how many goals they would score.
The average ratio is usually around 2. Abraham Lincoln’s
ratio was 1.93.
To figure out the
calculations with your own face, measure the distance between your ears and the
distance between the upper line of your eyes and your upper lip. The ratio
between these two figures will show how high your chances for success are.
According to scientists, the lower the figure, the higher the chances.
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A study conducted by scientists from the University College
London showed that men with a high level of testosterone have broad faces and
thick cheekbones. The level of this hormone has a direct connection with
aggressiveness, dominance, and a rebellious spirit. By the way, women
subconsciously feel it.
This trick is
regularly used by movie directors who choose men with rough facial features for
the parts of alpha-males, rebels, and villains
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Wrinkles betray not only a human’s age but also their
character. A person uses different face muscles to smile, cry, frown, or raise
an eyebrow. In time, these wrinkles show the most used emotion on a person’s
face, even when they are calm and thinking about nothing.
Crow’s feet at the
corners of lips and eyes say optimistic things about your personality. You
sincerely love to laugh and are very emotional. At the same time, a crease of
the forehead between the eyebrows says you’re a serious person who has gone
through a lot in life.
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Many of us turn our face to a certain side when taking photos,
thinking that we look more attractive this way. A study by scientists from the
University of South Australia showed that the reasons for this action are much
deeper. It turns out that engineers, mathematicians, and chemists turn their
right cheek to the camera more often, while artists and psychologists turn the
left side of their face to the camera.
There was also a
difference between genders. Women turn their head to the right more often,
showing their left cheek. Researchers believe that the left side of the face is
considered more attractive because it is controlled by the right side of the
brain which is responsible for emotions.
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Lin Kee, from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore,
analyzed 123 selfies taken from Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site
similar to Twitter. She found a curious connection between selfie types and a
person’s personal traits. Friendly people prefer to take photos of themselves
from below. Those people who are open to new experiences demonstrate positive
emotions more often and are not afraid to look funny in their photos. While
neurotic people tend to make the infamous ’duck face’ in their selfies.
Still scientists
could not clearly define the personal traits of the people in the photos. This
is because people tend to look better on their selfies than in real life, which
complicates the task.
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The study of 1,700 photos of faces, actually of their noses,
was published in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery in 2013. The researchers
examined 14 different shapes of nose and connected them with different
personality types. It turns out that the bigger a nose is, the more ambitious
its owner is. These people are more inclined to be perfectionists.
Scientists even
researched the tip of the nose and concluded that if it’s big and meaty then
this person will be an excellent investor and financier, and if the tip is
small and delicate then its owner doesn’t care much about saving money.
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Even two identical twins who are impossible to distinguish
from each other gain more and more differences with age. It’s not even about
genes, but about the lifestyle a certain person leads. Bad habits print their
pattern on faces over time and help to immediately show what kind of life this
person leads and what should be expected from them.
Of course, an
alcoholic can easily be identified at first glance. But on the other hand, a
human’s evils are not always reflected on their face. For example, serial
killers and criminals have angelic faces sometimes.
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Alexander Todorov, professor of psychology at Princeton
University, is sure that we immediately form our impression about new people,
but these judgements can often be very deceiving. They are based on something
called the halo effect, a stereotype which connects behavior with appearance
where beautiful people seem to be smart and kind.
To demonstrate his theory, Todorov asked students to assess
the appearance of different composite portraits. People with child-like facial
features, like round faces and big eyes, seemed to be fragile, naive, obedient,
sincere, and kind. While gloomy, ugly, asymmetric faces were associated with
unfriendly personalities.
Just remember how many times your first impression about a
person was deceiving. Sometimes, positive and nice people turn out to be
disappointing in the end, while those who made a bad first impression turn out
to be wonderful people. This is because many people are more inclined to judge
a book by its cover than to dive a little deeper and figure out who the person
really is and what they are like.