The old expressions ‘he has an honest face’ and ‘don’t trust him — his eyes are too close together’ are often associated with gossiping grannies of fiction. But they may actually have some basis in fact. The British Psychological Society Research Digest Blog has a post on a recent study that links aggression in men with the shapes of their faces.
According to research conducted by Justin Carre, subjects were able to accurately assess how aggressive a series of men were by looking at pictures of their faces. The research found that it takes an instant for people to come to a decision about the person they see before them.
Faces that are broader than they are tall were the ones picked as belonging to the more aggressive men.
What is interesting is that the assumptions people made about men they saw were accurate, based on a preliminary test of the model’s behaviour in a controlled environment.
The research is supported by similar studies on assumptions of the sexual orientation and trustworthiness of men and women based on face shape and how profitable a company is, based on the appearance of the CEO.
It’s no surprise that we make quite sweeping assumptions about people on very little information, but can a person really size you up by looking at the shape of your face?
The implication is that your behaviour is determined by the set of your jaw, and nothing you can do to change your reputation will alter your demeanour – not a very encouraging thought.
The only explanation I can think of is down to the supposed power of self-fulfilling prophesy. Thick-set men are assumed to be aggressive and people react to them accordingly. You tend to compensate for other people’s behaviour towards you. Their defensiveness will invite you to act aggressively, in order to interact with them.
Whether or not your face is actually a window to your likely behaviour, the research underlines how powerful appearances are in determining how successful you can become. And depressing as it might be, how far you get may have already been determined by the genes you inherited from your family.
I see cosmetic surgeons rubbing their hands.
(Pic: Daquella manera cc2.0)
