How your looks betray your personality(newscientist.com)
newscientist.com
How your looks betray your personality
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126957.300-how-your-looks-betray-your-personality.html?full=true
7 comments
Hey Bill - interesting point, I've wondered along those lines myself. Also if I may - why not kill the "probably garbage" part when commenting? Just say what you think mate, it's a really well-reasoned theory and the discussion's better for it.
I think that's a great theory.
You don't even have to assume that past expressions permanently effect facial contour (though that's probably true). Whenever a person is being evaluated -- and taking a mugshot for a study certainly counts -- they adopt a pose/expression. They are almost certainly sending a message about themselves with their choice of expression, and that choice is biased by what's worked in that person's past interactions with others. Unless they're deeply dishonest, they'll send a generally-true message about their personality.
You could start to test this by seeing if the accuracy of third-party estimations holds up when people evaluate photos of sleeping/anesthesized faces.
On the other hand, a bleaker interpretation is also possible. Maybe you are born with a certain kind of face, and will always be judged that way no matter how you behave. So over time, only by playing-to-type do you get positive feedback, and the facial stereotype becomes destiny.
You don't even have to assume that past expressions permanently effect facial contour (though that's probably true). Whenever a person is being evaluated -- and taking a mugshot for a study certainly counts -- they adopt a pose/expression. They are almost certainly sending a message about themselves with their choice of expression, and that choice is biased by what's worked in that person's past interactions with others. Unless they're deeply dishonest, they'll send a generally-true message about their personality.
You could start to test this by seeing if the accuracy of third-party estimations holds up when people evaluate photos of sleeping/anesthesized faces.
On the other hand, a bleaker interpretation is also possible. Maybe you are born with a certain kind of face, and will always be judged that way no matter how you behave. So over time, only by playing-to-type do you get positive feedback, and the facial stereotype becomes destiny.
My untested hypothesis is that your parents and peers expect you to act a certain way (based on your appearance) and many people accept these subtle nudges without resistance. So, it basically becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I think that is a form of operant conditioning [1] mostly through subtle cues and social pressure.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning
There's some (unofficial) theories that you can judge a person's MBTI type by looking at their facial features.
http://www.socionics.com/advan/vi/vi.htm
I don't think there's hard evidence of it though - just one's own experiences.
I can guess the P/J split (J types have a serious look) and the F/T split (F types usually indicate to you their mood with their expressions) with a quick glance at the face, but haven't done anything in a controlled setting.
http://www.socionics.com/advan/vi/vi.htm
I don't think there's hard evidence of it though - just one's own experiences.
I can guess the P/J split (J types have a serious look) and the F/T split (F types usually indicate to you their mood with their expressions) with a quick glance at the face, but haven't done anything in a controlled setting.
Their MTBF, on the other hand, can be gauged by calculating a smoothed poisson distribution over their smoking, drinking and swearing habits.
A corollary (also probably garbage!) is that one of the clues that helps you guess a person's nationality by looking at them is these similar aspects of 'face-shaping': either through the most common sounds they make while speaking their language, or the typical mannerisms of that culture. Obviously this would only work within a group of people that have broadly similar racial characteristics. My 'sample group' is mainly from western European countries.