How do portraits of face influence the way people see you?

We all know that our appearance and facial expression play an important part on our first impression to others. At the time that social network and media are popular, most of people put more attention on how to shoot a good profile which present the best of themselves, giving a good impression to other people. However, do we really know how do our face influence others feeling? What kind of face gives good impression to others?

A neuroscientist  in New York University conducted an experiment that reveal the relevance of facial expression to perception of characteristic such as trustworthiness and friendliness. Besides, this study also reveal  that perceptions of ability are not influenced by facial expression but the structure of face. In the experiment, study subjects rated how friendly, trustworthy, and strong the person whose face appear in the photo. A separate group of  people rated those faces from very happy to very angry. Scientists revealed that people ranked the faces with happy expression as friendly and trustworthy but not those with angry expression. Surprisingly, participants did not rank faces as indicative of physical ability based on the expression but the structure of face. Study subjects graded the people who have broad face as a strong individual.

Later on, scientists conducted a second survey. This time, they showed participants the pictures that have either obscured expression or cropped width. The subjects who saw the pictures with no expression cues could no longer perceive the personality traits but could still rated strength based on width. In the other hand, the subjects who saw the pictures lack of structure cues, they could not perceive the physical ability but could still grade the personality traits.

In another survey, participants were presented with eight faces that vary in width and expression. Participants should select those person in the picture as their financial adviser or weight lifting champion. As it might be expected, people chose faces with happier expression as adviser and chose wider faces as winner of weight lifting competition.

This result tells us one thing. If you want others consider you as a trustworthy person, you should smile more often. Moreover, it also indicates that smile is the best makeup.