To find out how facial features influence first impressions, researchers from the University of York created a database of cartoon faces based and used mathematical models to measure and tweak 65 different factors - everything from eyebrow length to jaw shape.
They then asked volunteers to rate the faces based on three ‘core’ social factors: attractiveness ("Would this person be a good romantic partner?"), dominance ("Are they capable of carrying out those intentions?") and approachability ("Will this person help me or harm me?")
They found that certain physical features could strongly predict peoples’ judgements. For example large eyes were associated with attractiveness, masculine facial features with social dominance and a big smile with approachability.
University of York neuroscientist and senior author of the paper Dr Tom Hartley said that these associations were not surprising in themselves but that the consistency of people’s reactions could be important in a world where first impressions are increasingly based on profile pictures on the likes of Tinder and LinkedIn.
The cartoon faces used by the researchers to predict snap judgements. Image: PNAS“It might be problematic if we're forming these kind of judgements based on these rather fleeting impressions," Dr Hartley told the BBC, "particularly in today's world where we only might see one picture of a face, on social media, and have to form our impression based on that."
He added that the findings could also be beneficial to people looking to put their best face forward in business or in socializing.
“You would be able to use these kind of numbers to decide when is a good time to take a photograph, or maybe to choose the photograph that's really optimal in putting forward the best possible impression - and you might want to put forward different kinds of social impressions in different situations."
Unfortunately, just because people tend to judge people based on their faces in predictable ways, it doesn’t mean that their judgements are any good. Although some studies have found certain features that seem to predict personality traits (men with wider faces are more likely to cheat and lie for example) there are no grand formulas that definitively link appearance and personality.
So if you want people to think you're a more approachable person by all means give a big smile in that photo - but don't expect anyone grinning at you in Tinder to be a sweetheart when you meet them in real life.
© ACADEMIA ARALAR. Estella, Navarra.
I found this article really interesting. I think that it is a good idea to be aware of what impression you can make and use it to your own blessing.
ReplyDeleteFew days ago I saw a video that explains how our brain judge a person in the first 5 seconds you see that person enter in the room. It did not focus on the faces but in everything from the bags she was holding to the glasses she was wearing. The thing is that they have to applay to a job, and depending on how you enter the room you are more likly to get the jobo r not.
So we should use this in our daily life, not to have to face those unconfortable situations when we meet someone .
What a interesting article! With this kind of surveys we can see how powerful is our brain and how many things we do unconciously. I knew that sometimes we judge before knowing a person, only looking at their phisical appearence but I didn't know how we do it.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to know how other people see us and on what we base to judge. However, the phisical appearence doesn't show our real personality so we can't base on this.
I also find this article really interesting but I not agree at all. We judge people when we see them because of their phisical appearance, I don´t know how neither, but we can´t know how is he/she until we know more about him/her. I think that what is really important of a person is his/her personality instead of his/her physical appearance.
ReplyDelete