They say that eyes are the window to the soul, but did you know that the rest of your features reveal some information about you? Yes, that’s right! Many people believe that there is a connection between our facial features and personality traits. So, having a small nose or a wide face is not just about genetics. These features can be used to predict your reactions and behavior.
If you’re asking yourself now, can you tell someone’s personality by their face, the answer is yes! Alan Stevens, an Australian professor and researcher, talked to Business Insider and stated that it is possible to draw conclusions about a person’s character and even their health just by looking at their face.
Physiognomy, or a person’s facial features, as understood in the past meets the contemporary definition of pseudoscience. This means that there is still not enough data to consider this branch a real science. However, many branches of academia are curious about exploring the subject further.
Keep reading if you want to find out what does facial features tell about the person and can you tell someone’s personality by their face!
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As already mentioned, face reading is pseudoscience and Stevens’ methods are still not accepted by the modern scientific community. His face-reading techniques are based on previous research that has been done by Paul Ekman, Edward Vincent Jones, and Robert Whiteside. Stevens believes that facial features can tell a lot about a person because they reflect aspects that people are born with (nature) as well as aspects that they develop throughout their lives (nurture). “There is a strong statistical basis but all academics want to see further proof,” Stevens said. “I’ve been chasing universities for some time now. What I’d like to see is for this to become a course.”
Here are seven traits that Stevens claims can be read from people’s faces:
1. Confidence
According to Stevens, you can find out a lot about a person’s confidence by examining the ratio of facial width to facial length. People whose faces are less than 60% as wide as they are long, tend to be cautious by nature. On the other hand, those whose faces are at least 70% as wide as they are long are born more confident.
2. Friendliness
One of the interesting physiognomy examples is that the distance between the top of the eye to the eyebrow compared to the height of the eye can tell whether you’re a friendly person or not. Stevens believes that people with higher eyebrows tend to have developed stronger muscles related to making surprised facial expressions. Those people tend to prefer more personal space.
3. Tolerance
Eyes can say a lot about a person, and so can the distance between eyes. Stevens believes that tolerance is indicated by the horizontal distance between the eyes. The wider the eyes are set, the more tolerant a person tends to be.
4. Sense of Humor
One of the answers to the question of what does facial features tell about a person is a sense of humor. This trait is indicated by the length of the philtrum or the vertical groove between the nose and upper lip. According to Stevens, a longer philtrum is linked to a dry sense of humor and sarcasm, whereas people with shorter philtrums may get offended because they take jokes personally.
5. Generosity
Who would have thought that the fullness of your lips may reveal whether you’re a generous person or not? Well, lips actually reveal your generosity with words. If you have fuller lips then it is quite likely that you are more generous with your speech. On the other hand, people with thinner lips tend to be concise.
6. World View
By analyzing the size of the fold on a person’s eyelid, you can actually gain a better understanding of their world view. People with thicker folds are usually more analytical. People with thin or no folds at all tend to be decisive and action-driven.
7. Magnetism
The last of the physiognomy examples on this list is magnetism and it can be revealed by a person’s eye color. According to Stevens, people with deeper-colored eyes tend to be more charismatic.
However, Stevens isn’t the only one interested in face reading. Here are some other physiognomy examples that will help you understand can you tell someone’s personality by their face?
Other researchers who focused on face reading got similar results to Stevens, but also some additional discoveries. Here is what they found out.
1. Facial Width Reveals Aggressiveness
People with wider faces and bigger cheekbones tend to be more likely to be aggressive because they have higher levels of testosterone. This doesn’t mean that people with wide faces will act aggressively. However, they are more likely to respond to a potential conflict instead of just blowing it off. Researchers believe that this might be due to an evolutionary benefit of having robust bones and the fact that people with more testosterone are genetically programmed to handle more conflict.
2. Cheek Size Reveals Your Overall Health
Out of all random physiognomy examples and the characteristics they reveal, this one is quite unexpected. It is believed that cheek size can be used to measure overall health. Having fuller cheeks means that a person is more likely to catch an illness or an infection.
In addition, Benedict Jones, a researcher at Glasgow University told BBC that people with larger cheeks are also more likely to be depressed or anxious over the course of a lifetime.
3. Skin Tone Reveals a Lot About Your Lifestyle
Carmen Lefevre at Northumbria University claims that your skin tone reflects your health and your lifestyle. And, by skin tone, he means your skin undertones, the “barely-noticeable tints” that come in many different colors.
For example, having a yellow/golden skin undertone is often connected to good health because the gold in the skin tone reflects how many fruits and vegetables you’ve been eating. Fresh produce is packed with carotenoids, orange pigments, and if you’ve been eating plenty of healthy food, that will be reflected on your skin.
If your skin has a slightly pink hue that means your circulation is very good as a result of leading an active lifestyle. Also, a reddish tone is connected to a woman’s fertility cycle. During ovulation, a hormone named estradiol flushes to the skin and dilates the blood vessels in the cheeks.
4. Nose Shape Points Out Many Positive Traits
Our noses are made of all different sorts of connective tissue and bones that can, apparently, say a lot about our personality. A large schnoz is usually a sign that a person is ambitious, self-reliant, and confident. However, a person that has only a large nose tip is described as a financial planner who cares a lot about where the money is going. Those who have neutral nose tips are said to be sweet, mild-tempered, and to have endearing personalities. People who have a longer nose tend to be decisive, intuitive, and enjoy the action.
Wondering how come you are so ambitious when no one else in your family is? That is all because of your nose!
5. Eyes Are the Window to the Soul
Well, maybe. But, when it comes to face reading, your eyes reveal a few other things as well.
One interesting research carried out at Pittsburgh University revealed that women with lighter eyes experience less pain in childbirth, and those with darker eye colors require less alcohol in order to feel intoxicated. The reason for this is because dark eyes have more melanin, the pigment that makes them dark. And, melanin is also a sign of a quicker and more effective brain function.
All the research carried out on face reading truly seems promising, but, still, there has not been enough evidence collected to classify face reading as actual science. But, of course, all the researchers we mentioned strongly believe in the power of face reading and are trying to come up with as much evidence that will give more credit to this pseudoscience.
So, if you’re still wondering how accurate is face reading, the truth is, it is still unknown. Experienced face readers claim that they can not only reveal a person’s characteristics by looking at their faces, but also their present, past, and future.
Further research into this subject matter could be very useful since face reading could then be applied perhaps in schools or even by HR management. Then, professionals’ could read whether a person has leadership abilities, attention to detail, quality consciousness, or whether the person is good for administration or business development and many other things by just looking at the human face.
Have you managed to find yourself in the physiognomy examples we provided? Even though many of these descriptions are a result of research, it doesn’t mean they are absolutely correct. Our personalities are influenced by many other factors in our lives, not just the shape of our cheeks or the color of our eyes. But, if you’ve always wondered how come you are an emotionally aggressive financial planner who gets tipsy off one glass of wine, well maybe the answer is because of your facial features.
