from Hacker News

Others may be unconsciously judging your features in ways you don't realise

by AdamFernandez on 7/22/15, 2:27 PM with 66 comments

• by blfr on 7/22/15, 3:42 PM

  Being swayed by superficial cues is not irrational if they correlate to the underlying qualities you are trying to judge. And, of course, prior information should change the way you view new information. I don't see how it can do more harm than good if you can do better than chance. Neither would I be so confident that I can do better than millions of years of evolution, especially by reading resumes.

  We can guess what particular traits make people seem less trustworthy. For example, supposedly men with wider faces are more likely to act immorally (deceive, cheat). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21733897

• by zachb on 7/22/15, 3:09 PM

  The author completely glosses over a crucial fact: an individual's face is representative of the lifestyle that he or she lives. Fat; thin; tan; pale; bearded; bald. Is your hair buzzed military grade, or does it spill over your shoulders? Do you take care of your skin? Do you wax your eyebrows?

  Our faces certainly tell some sort of story, but there's more to it than bone structure and brow size.

• by mashematician on 7/22/15, 3:39 PM

  Couldn't help but be reminded of Ted Chiang's "Liking What You See: A Documentary" http://www.ibooksonline.com/88/Text/liking.html

• by charlieflowers on 7/22/15, 4:29 PM

  If you accept that our brains automatically make these judgements and therefore we're unlikely to be able to train ourselves out of it, then the most interesting question is:

  "How do you hack this?"

  What can an individual do to maximize good judgements? How can you influence the amount of competence or dominance or trustworthiness others automatically attribute to your face?

• by sosuke on 7/22/15, 3:28 PM

  I really don't like the sound of this, just how far does it need to go? The end result is everyone being exactly the same as everyone else right? Same DNA even? But somehow if you made that society they would find a way to tell each other apart, and make snap judgments.

  In the past, this “face-ism” (as Olivola and his colleagues call it) was considered an unfortunate fact of life. But the more they come to understand its pervasive influence, the more they are beginning to wonder if it should be treated like any other prejudice. If so, it could be time to take action.

• by Irene on 7/22/15, 3:35 PM

  I suppose applicants with faces judged as competent and dominant (and looking like Zuckerberg, etc) tend to come out on top after video pitches in startup incubator applications.

• by facepalm on 7/22/15, 7:35 PM

  In this video Dan Ariely mentions some interesting research about the effects of beauty: http://bigthink.com/videos/dan-ariely-on-advantages-of-physi...

  Apparently research has shown that while taller people tend to earn more money, it depends on their height during puberty. People grow at different times, so some people who are tall later in life might not have been so in puberty, while others where already tall in puberty.

  The hypothesis is that the effect of tall people earning more might actually be the result of them being more confident, due to already having been tall in their teens. Some effects of beauty might show the same relation.

• by carlmcqueen on 7/22/15, 3:30 PM

  This article seems to be talking out the reality that our brains handle the big data of life by generalization, ignoring that in small samples things can be quite different than the group average.

  When I see a big, tattoo covered individual I feel more nervous than unmarked, average sized individuals. Having grown up with a sister who eventually majored in photography I know plenty of tattoo'd people who are amazing people and often artistic and creative, but my brain still sends the signals.

  We are very likely judged whether we like it or not by appearance, but I feel there is plenty we can do about some of it. I take this article to remind myself to own my appearance and what is says and be conscious that it may be deciding things for me.

• by ericdykstra on 7/22/15, 4:52 PM

  Can anyone share actionable tips about how to make a better first impression?

  Of course, much of beauty, attraction, first impression, etc is genetic, as this article points out. But what are some aspects that can be controlled? Anything from daily preparation stuff (what types of clothes we wear, what colors, to shave or not to shave) to the way we walk, or the way we talk, our facial expression, how we greet someone new, etc...

  If anyone knows of some research or has any anecdotes, I'd like to hear of it!

• by dottedmag on 7/22/15, 3:57 PM

  So, how to beat the game then? Say, an instruction how to apply a touch of makeup before going to the business meeting or to the interview.

• by frandroid on 7/22/15, 3:30 PM

  Wait, we judge people by their looks, more often than not subconsciously?!

• by biturd on 7/22/15, 4:37 PM

  Maybe we are not born this way, and it is our life and work experiences that make our faces that way. There is the obvious, construction worker, out in the sun, their face it going to get weathered and a more "hard" looking individual will come out. And perhaps he got into construction as a result of somewhat challenging life, which made him frown all the time so he got frown lines, which makes a person look a certain way, even distrusting.

  Many things can influence how we look. And from this article it seems the markers are very subtle. I would almost expect to see people getting minor cosmetic surgery, where some lines are removed, some accentuated, an eyebrow tuck here, an eye pull there, a lip push here, a wrinkle added there.

  All these are minimal invasive compared to full on look altering cosmetic surgery. We just have to figure out what to polish and what to prematurely age and distress.

• by lsniddy on 7/22/15, 4:28 PM

  People ask me for directions all the time, and I've always been convinced this was the reason. I also think body size and appearance plays a part

  Wouldn't it be neat if you offered a service that would rate you on some important dimensions so you new your relative score?

• by pcthrowaway on 7/22/15, 3:07 PM

  This was submitted with the title of the article and then changed to this ("Others may be unconsciously judging your features in ways you don't realise") in the time it took me to read it. Isn't the policy here that article submissions should be submitted with the title of the article?

• by th0waway on 7/22/15, 5:46 PM

  Category view versus inside view, as expounded upon in another link on HN today: http://edge.org/events/the-edge-master-class-2007-a-short-co...

  Funny how category view seems to work for everything EXCEPT human beings </sarcasm>

• by toolsadmin on 7/22/15, 3:28 PM

  More PC rubbish. Soon we'll all have to wear brown paper bags over our heads and speak through a gender-neutral, computer generated microphone voice lest someone gets upset or gets an "unfair" advantage.