Physiognomy - Beware of the round-faced man

After the joy of discovering a link to my theory with the Thatcher effect, I came across this article in one of my New Scientist editions in which the cover story talks about the psychology involved with the human face. It begs the question of whether there is a link between appearance and personality.

The article actually starts by asking the entirely relevant question of whether your looks betray uncomfortable truths about the person within. Physiognomy - this idea that you can tell a persons character by their appearance  is commonly coined by the idea that a court judge can tell whether a defendant is guilty or not by the first look. Apparently this idea of physiognomy was written off in the late 19th century but is undergoing a revival under the magically imaginative name of 'new-physiognomy'. 

As described on the BBC science link posted earlier first impressions are highly important despite the cliched admonition to not judge a book by its cover! Within 1/10 of a second of seeing an unfamiliar face our brains have made a snap shot judgement of the owner's character be it caring, aggressive, extrovert or safe. Apparently once the judgement has been made it is very hard to change, and according to New Scientist people seem to come to similiar judgements on certain faces. Interestingly people seem to act upon these snap judgements; Politicians with trustworthy faces will be more likely to be elected, soldiers who look dominant rise through the ranks quicker. Yet baby-faced good looking men are, on average, better educated, more assertive and apt to win military medals. In relation to the earlier mention of the court room baby-faced men are apparently more likely to be exonerated from a crime than their more mature-faced peers. 

Their studies also discuss an age old myth that pretty people get further in life, they argue that it is true. People that are good looking are judged to be more socially competent, powerful, sexually responsive, intelligent and responsive. they apparently do better in all ways from how they are greeted to how the justice system treats them.

The article continues in much depth but there are more interesting and funny facts about the human face told through statistics that I could apply to my artwork. Is there an evolutionary reason for this ability to snap judge people by their face? Apparently men with wider faces are more aggressive so if we see someone with a round face bounding towards us we are instinctively prepared to run in the opposite direction! This is apparently linked to the testosterone levels, where men with a higher concentration are known to be stronger and more dominant. By playing with peoples faces in certain ways I could perhaps alter the biological intentions of their faces from, say, trustworthy to aggressive and create collections of different masks for/from different situations. It could almost be as though I was playing God and changing their hormone levels to see how that would affect their appearance. Most of the facts mentioned here are paraphrased from New Scientist (issue no.2695, p.28-32)