Category: Social psychology

Rich vs poor faces and by extension social class can be read from facial features, almost unconsciously, research finds.

Just by looking at your face features, people can reliably tell whether you are rich vs poor, a study finds.

And on that basis, they also make other judgements: for example, that rich people are more likely to be hired for a job.

Dr Thora Bjornsdottir, who led the study, said:

“It indicates that something as subtle as the signals in your face about your social class can actually then perpetuate it.

Those first impressions can become a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy.

It’s going to influence your interactions, and the opportunities you have.”

The reason is probably that a look of happiness or satisfaction (or unhappiness and dissatisfaction) becomes etched on your face in the teens or early adulthood.

Find the rich vs poor faces

Here are some of the examples from the study, see if you can guess who is rich and who is poor.

Are the rich-looking faces on the left, marked ‘A’, or on the right, marked ‘B’?

The answer is that the four rich-looking faces are on the left, marked ‘A’.

If you look closely, you will see that the difference is even more pronounced along the bottom row: the ‘B’ faces look much more unhappy than the ‘A’ faces.

Dr Nicholas Rule, study co-author, said:

“Over time, your face comes to permanently reflect and reveal your experiences.

Even when we think we’re not expressing something, relics of those emotions are still there.”

Rich vs poor faces study

The results come from a study in which students were shown photos and asked to judge whether they were rich vs poor.

Interestingly, though, people could only judge someone’s social class if they posed with a neutral face.

The effect vanished if people smiled.

Dr Rule said:

“What we’re seeing is students who are just 18-22 years old have already accumulated enough life experience that it has visibly changed and shaped their face to the point you can tell what their socio-economic standing or social class is.

There are neurons in the brain that specialize in facial recognition.

The face is the first thing you notice when you look at somebody.

We see faces in clouds, we see faces in toast.

We are sort of hardwired to look for face-like stimuli.

And this is something people pick up very quickly.

And they are consistent, which is what makes it statistically significant.”

An unconscious judgement

Dr Bjornsdottir concluded:

“People are not really aware of what cues they are using when they make these judgments.

If you ask them why, they don’t know.

They are not aware of how they are doing this.

People talk about the cycle of poverty, and this is potentially one contributor to that.”

The study was published in the journal Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Bjornsdottir & Rule, 2017).

People sometimes say that the most attractive eye colour is blue, but what happens when it is scientifically tested?

Blue is the most attractive or beautiful eye colour, but only for some people, research finds.

Blue-eyed males are particularly attracted to blue-eyed females, the researchers found.

However, women showed no preference for blue or brown-eyed men and brown-eyed men showed no preference either.

Most beautiful eye colour study

The conclusion comes from a study in which 443 people looked at pictures of models whose eyes were digitally adjusted.

All the people in the study were Caucasians from Norway.

Here’s an example:

The study might help to explain a stereotype about blue-eyed people.

Blue eyes are often said to be more attractive, but when this is tested, the preference is hard to detect.

Another later study has found that people mention blue eyes being more attractive, but when it is tested, they are not especially attracted to blue eyes.

Why blue might be prettiest

The researchers give an evolutionary explanation for the preference for blue eyes in blue-eyed men:

“We propose that such a preference is an adaptation reflecting the selective pressure to increase the men’s ability to detect extra-pair paternity and decrease paternal uncertainty; that is, both as a phenotypically based assurance of paternity (i.e., when the father’s and offspring’s phenotypes match) as well as a defense against cuckoldry (i.e., when the phenotypes do not match).”

In other words, if you have blue eyes and so does your wife, then a brown-eyed baby spells bad news for your paternity.

The studies were published in the journals Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (Laeng et al., 2007; Gründl et al., 2012).

A wide or broad face is more attractive for a male in certain circumstances as it signals dominance.

For short-term relationships, women are more attracted to a wide face, research finds.

Men with a wide face are seen as more dominant and aggressive.

Dr Katherine Valentine, the study’s first author, said:

“Our study shows that within three minutes of meeting in real life, women find more dominant, wider-faced men attractive for short-term relationships, and want to go on another date with them.”

A wide face signals dominance

For the study, the researchers measured men’s facial width to height ratio, their fWHR.

Dr Valentine explained:

“High male fWHR has previously been associated with surviving in hand-to-hand combat, aggressiveness, self-perceived power, and CEO’s financial success.

Our study shows it’s also a reasonably good indicator of perceived dominance — not only that, it piques women’s interest in a face-to-face speed-dating setting.”

The study involved live speed dating in which heterosexual single people met for just 3 minutes.

Men with the widest or broadest faces (more accurately, the highest fWHR) were rated as more dominant.

They were more likely to be chosen for a short-term relationship.

Women were also more likely to choose them for a second date as well.

Dr Valentine said:

“The fact that women wanted to see these men again suggests that our findings are robust — women aren’t just saying they are interested, they’re actually willing to be contacted by these men.

Previous studies have found that women prefer more dominant men for short-term relationships, but almost all of these studies were based in the lab and did not involve an interaction that could actually lead to mating and dating.”

The researchers took into account the age and attractiveness of the men — in other words it wasn’t just that men with wider faces (or of a certain age) were more attractive.

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Valentine et al., 2014).

The most attractive lip size and shape might surprise you. A 50 percent boost is the best, but pay attention to the ratio of upper to lower lip.

Many women are paying for cosmetic ‘enhancements’ to their lips that are making them less attractive, if new research is anything to go by.

The overfilled upper lip may not actually be the most attractive look, a study published in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery finds.

Scientists at the University of California showed a series of pictures of women’s faces to 150 judges.

Most attractive lip shape and size

Both the overall size of the lips and the ratio of top lip to bottom lip was digitally manipulated to see what was most attractive.

First they wanted to look at the general size of the lips, to see how much bigger was actually attractive (see below).

It turned out that increasing lip size by around 50 percent was the most attractive.

(Of course, this 50 percent figure will depend on how big your lips are to begin with.)

This one is marked ‘C’ in the image above.

Are heavy lower lips attractive?

Next they looked at the ratio of top lip to bottom lip (see below).

Bear in mind that many celebrities choose something that looks like the image on the right, marked ‘D’, with a heavy upper lip.

It turned out that the picture on the far-left marked ‘A’ was actually seen as most attractive.

Unsurprisingly to anyone with functioning eye balls, ‘D’, with a heavy upper lip, was the least attractive look.

In fact, it was the heavier lower lip that was rated most attractive.

Anyone thinking of augmenting their lips would do well to heed the advice of this study’s authors:

“We advocate preservation of the natural ratio or achieving a 1:2 ratio in lip augmentation procedures while avoiding the overfilled upper lip look frequently seen among celebrities.”

We shall have to wait with baited breath for the complementary study on the perfect ratio for a man’s lips…

The study was published in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery (Popenko et al., 2017).

Why wearing the colour red has a primitive effect on attraction, making both men and women more attractive.

Wearing the colour red makes both men and women more attractive to the opposite sex, studies find.

When men wear it, red sends signals of status and dominance to others.

When women wear it, the extra pull on men may have deeper, biological roots.

The study’s authors write:

“Our research demonstrates a parallel in the way that human and nonhuman male primates respond to red.

In doing so, our findings confirm what many women have long suspected and claimed – that men act like animals in the sexual realm.

As much as men might like to think that they respond to women in a thoughtful, sophisticated manner, it appears that at least to some degree, their preferences and predilections are, in a word, primitive.”

Red does make you more attractive

In one study, men were shown pictures of women in a shirt digitally coloured either blue or red.

The men were simply asked: “How pretty do you think this person is?”

Time after time, the same woman wearing red was rated as more attractive and sexually desirable than when she wore other colours, such as blue and grey.

Why red is the most attractive colour

A later study has found that men wearing red are also more attractive to women.

Professor Andrew Elliot, one of the study’s authors, said:

“We found that women view men in red as higher in status, more likely to make money and more likely to climb the social ladder.

And it’s this high-status judgment that leads to the attraction.”

Men wearing red were rated as more attractive, powerful and sexually desirable.

Professor Elliot continued:

“When women see red it triggers something deep and probably biologically engrained.

We say in our culture that men act like animals in the sexual realm.

It looks like women may be acting like animals as well in the same sort of way.”

Fascinatingly, neither sex was aware of the effect that the colour red was having on them.

The studies were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General  (Elliot & Niesta et al., 2008; Elliot et al., 2010).

These personality traits are more attractive in both a man and a woman.

Playfulness is one of the more attractive personality traits, psychologists have found.

Playful people are particularly keen for their partners to be playful.

The playful prefer someone who is funny, laidback and creative.

The five most attractive personality traits, though, are:

1. kindness and understanding,
2. intelligence,
3. sense of humour,
4. being fun loving,
5. and having an exciting personality.

For a longer list of attractive personality traits, with links to the research studies, see below.

Signs of a playfulness person

Playful people enjoy teasing, wordplay, improvising and taking challenges in a light-hearted way.

They enjoy unusual things and are good at creating situations people can enjoy.

Playfulness seems to send a slightly different type of positive signal to men and women.

To women playfulness sends the signal that a man is not aggressive.

To a man it send the signal that a woman has vitality.

Dr René Proyer, the study’s first author, said:

“Therefore, this personality trait also seems important for the choice of partner — at least more so than the partner having a degree, good genes or being religious.”

The conclusions come from a survey of 327 young adults.

They were asked which traits they found desirable in a long-term partner.

Both men and women mostly agreed on the order of the traits.

However, women were more interested in a sense of humour and men in an exciting personality.

Dr Proyer said:

“Although we should be cautious while interpreting the data, this could be an indication that playful people are actually perceived as more attractive partners or that playfulness increasingly develops in the relationship.”

The study’s author write that playfulness may increase well-being:

“…individuals perceive playfulness as being beneficial to well-functioning romantic relationships by increasing the well-being of the partners, by maintaining the relationships’ excitement, and by conveying the each individual’s affection for his or her partner, and—more generally speaking—by more deeply cultivating the relationship.”

Attractive personality traits

Other personality traits often rated the most attractive to a wide variety of people include:

• Intelligence and friendliness.
• Kindness: when choosing a long-term partner, traits such as financial prospects and physical attractiveness are certainly important. However, it is kindness that people value above all else.
• Being extraverted and having stable emotions: extraverts are generally outgoing, self-confident and cheerful and can also be impulsive, sensation-seekers. Emotional stability is linked to being better at dealing with stress and minor frustrations.
• Being compassionate: being compassionate is particularly attractive to people who are highly empathetic or have a left-wing ideology.
• Optimism: optimists mix well in long-term relationships with everyone.
• Generosity: all kinds of generous acts are effective, from giving up time for charitable causes to just giving affection to others.
• Non-conformity: both men and women prefer someone who ‘did their own thing’ rather than someone who ‘went along’ with everyone else.

Indeed, positive personality traits like those above can make a person appear more physically attractive.

Similarly, those displaying negative personality traits — like rudeness and unfairness — look physically less attractive to observers.

Narcissists and psychopaths

While the personality traits above are often attractive to most people, some personality traits are only attractive to certain people or in some situations.

For example:

• Women are sometimes attracted to men with dark personality traits.
• ‘Bad boys’ tend to be laid-back and extraverted, both of which are attractive traits — however, when narcissism and psychopathy reveal themselves, this is less attractive.
• Although men say they prefer a smarter women, when a real living, breathing smarter women is close by, men shy away, preferring women of lower intelligence.
• Being nice makes women more attractive to men, but can have the opposite effect for men on women.

The study was published in the American Journal of Play (Proyer & Wagner, 2015).

Two dating apps suggest the most attractive jobs for both a man and woman.

Pilots, entrepreneurs, firefighters and doctors are the most attractive professions for men, dating app behaviour suggests.

For women, it is physical therapists, interior designers, entrepreneurs (again!) and PR people that top the list.

(If your profession isn’t here, check out the full list at the bottom of the article.)

At least these are the most ‘right-swiped’ professions on Tinder, according to the company.

Dating sites sometimes release these morsels of information and we have no idea how scientific they are.

Alternative claims for the most attractive jobs come from Badoo, another dating company.

Most attractive jobs for a woman

They surveyed 5,000 heterosexual men and women aged 18 to 30 in the UK.

Their list looks a little different — perhaps reflecting the cultural divide between the US and the UK.

For women, the most attractive jobs were:

1. Hairdresser
2. Nurse
3. Lawyer
4. Entrepreneur
5. Teacher

Most attractive jobs for a man

For men, the most attractive jobs were:

1. Chef
2. Engineer
3. Entrepreneur
4. Marketing
5. Artist

It seems, whether you are a man or a woman, using Tinder or Badoo, it is time to become an entrepreneur.

Oh, by the way, have I told you about the new company I’m starting up…

Most attractive professions on Tinder

And here is the full list of most attractive professions for women from Tinder:

1. Physical Therapist
2. Interior Designer
3. Entrepreneur
4. PR
5. Teacher
6. College Student
7. Speech Language Pathologist
8. Pharmacist
9. Social Media Manager
10. Model
11. Dental Hygienist
12. Nurse
13. Flight Attendant
14. Personal Trainer
15. Real Estate Agent

The same list for men:

1. Pilot
2. Entrepreneur
3. Firefighter
4. Doctor
5. TV/Radio Personality
6. Teacher
7. Engineer
8. Model
9. Paramedic
10. College Student
11. Lawyer
12. Personal Trainer
13. Financial Advisor
14. Police Officer
15. Military

The data was sourced from Tinder and Badoo.

Long black hair was rated as more attractive than medium-length black hair in the study.

While black hair is attractive on a woman, lighter and longer hair makes women look more attractive in some circumstances, research finds.

Having lighter hair was most strongly linked to higher ratings for attractiveness, youth and health.

However, there were some kinks in the findings.

For example, having medium-length blonde hair was rated more attractive than long blonde hair.

Long black hair, though, was rated as more attractive than medium-length black hair.

The study’s authors describe their results:

“…we found that lighter hair (blond and brown) compared to darker hair (black) is generally associated with perceptions of youth, health and attractiveness, and generally leads to more positive perceptions of relationship and parenting potential.”

Black hair compared to brown and blond

For the study, 110 men looked at images of women with different coloured hair and of different lengths.

The hair colours were blond, brown and black and the lengths short, medium and long.

They were asked about the women’s relationship potential, age, health and parenting capability.

Longer hair, though, was linked to lower perceptions of parenting ability.

The study’s authors view their findings as supporting evolutionary theories:

“Hair that is healthy and strong signifies overall physical
health, which in turn can signify one’s capability of conceiving and carrying a child.

[…]

Because hair tends to be thicker, healthier, and grow more quickly in younger women (ages 16-24) than older women, one would expect that younger women would wear their hair longer than older women to provide a more perceptible and powerful signal to reproductive potential.”

Hair gets darker with age

Similarly, from an evolutionary perspective, blonde hair signals youth as people’s hair gets darker with age, until it starts to turn white.

Other studies suggest, though, that blonde hair only has a rejuvenating effect when women are under 40.

There is also evidence that preferences for blonde or darker hair depend on how prevalent that hair colour is in the area.

Men seem to prefer blonde hair more in areas where it is already more naturally prevalent.

The study was published in The Journal of Social Psychology (Matz & Hinsz, 2017).