
The Introverted Face - rosser
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-introverted-face/381697/?single_page=true
======
Xcelerate
I strongly agree with the author that "face-ism" is a highly overlooked issue
that needs to be dealt with. People treat other people differently on the
basis of what their face looks like, and it gets tiring. (Although I'm not one
to judge, as I've found I'm not immune to the phenomenon myself. For instance,
my initial impulse is to regard people who have a "bro" or "frat" face with
contempt before realizing how irrational that is.)

I almost feel like people begin to act how others expect them to act on the
basis of their face; their personality is shaped as a response to the stimulus
of other people's interactions with them. Someone who has a "friendly" face is
going to be picked first in sports, is going to be talked to first out of a
group of strangers, etc., and this creates a feedback loop where these people
actually _do_ become friendly, talkative, and outgoing.

Likewise, those with "antisocial, don't-talk-to-me" faces are going to be
ignored or treated standoffishly, and this too creates a feedback loop where
these people assume since no one wants to interact with them, they will just
stay by themselves instead. It's frustrating.

~~~
fchollet
Does every aspect of spontaneous human thought need to be given a -ism name
and be tagged as a sin? "Face-ism" is essentially pattern-matching, which is
the way cognition operates on a fundamental level.

Cognition is about finding statistical regularities in perception data, then
using these regularities to make predictions about the future. So, on a
completely unconscious level, you are using your memory of thousands of past
experiences with people you know to predict a stranger's characteristics based
on their appearance (among many other things).

Sometimes, the generalization does not work and your unconscious predictions
turn out to be mistaken. The only way not to make mistakes is not to think.
And for that, you would have to turn your brain off entirely, since these
thoughts are not occurring at a conscious, rational level that you can
deliberately police.

~~~
ryanmonroe
If a subset of these inferences are shown to be wrong, wouldn't you want to
make a conscious effort to stop making them? It would seem that becoming less
biased in your evaluation of people would benefit both you and those you're
evaluating.

~~~
ams6110
These inferences are developed over millenia of evolution. They are probably
not wrong. Being able to judge trustworthiness, aggression, etc. based on a
quick assesment of face is valuable for survival.

~~~
tashi
An alternative theory is that we have evolved just to be good at
distinguishing changing facial expressions (and body language), especially
within our own social groups. Using this skill to match people's expressions
with their behavior over time would give us a tool for making good
predictions.

But if we then met a complete stranger or tribe whose face at rest, say purely
through random variation of bone structure, happened to look more aggressive
or happier or more sneaky than the resting faces of our friends, it would lead
us to make biased and unjustified predictions.

------
GuiA
Seems like there'd be an opportunity for a consulting business which guides
you on which haircut to get, how to trim your eyebrows, which glasses to wear,
etc. in order to get a promotion, be perceived as more more intelligent or
more extroverted, depending on how you aspire to progress in your career.

Maybe such a thing already exists and I'm not in the loop. (I'm not talking
about a personal stylist here- these seem to be to look more
attractive/fashionable. Maybe there's a style that makes you look much more
competent, at the detriment of your attractiveness- but you care about the
former).

I'm also reminded of this:
[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Moustache.txt](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Moustache.txt)

~~~
mabbo
Alternatively, one could build software to do this for them.

Consider: Facial recognition with a camera facing the person is pretty well
understood. It's not perfect, but it's probably good enough. Could we extend
that to also pick up the subtle facial cues that this research is talking
about? And then based on that, train a person on how to manually adjust those
cues?

Maybe we're not quite there today- but I bet we're not far off. I can imagine
seeing this as an app that you whip out just before you walk into that
interview, like a mirror to adjust your hair, but for your facial expression.

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gtr32x
In chinese there is a proverb consist of four characters: 相由心生。Its derived
meaning is basically that: you will look how you are.

For years I've been daunting over the implications of it. I was never a firm
believer nor a firm disbeliever. Advances in modern science such as this
article only brings new light to how I think about this.

Whilst it may seem to be a form of discrimination to judge a person by their
appearance just like racism or sexism, maybe there is certain evolutionary
notion behind this. Maybe we as human have evolved certain abilities to
recognize a person's inner traits/personality based on their look. I certainly
do not believe that beauty or handsomeness maybe a fact in determining the
personality of a person. But through observation a person's confidence or
innocence can be somewhat picked out by how they appear. Which I do not
believe is correlated with how they portray themselves in terms of exterior
such as haircuts or the amount of make up they put on. But rather, their gaze
betray them of the real self.

Perhaps that old Chinese proverb has some truth in it, and our science is
about to uncover it.

~~~
joshuaheard
Reminds me of the lyrics to an old Talking Heads song:

Seen and Not Seen

"He would see faces in movies, on T.V., in magazines, and in books....

He thought that some of these faces might be right for him....And through the
years, by keeping an ideal facial structure fixed in his mind....Or somewhere
in the back of his mind....That he might, by force of will, cause his face to
approach those of his ideal....The change would be very subtle....It might
take ten years or so.... Gradually his face would change its' shape....A more
hooked nose... Wider, thinner lips....Beady eyes....A larger forehead.

He imagined that this was an ability he shared with most other people....They
had also molded their faced according to some ideal....Maybe they imagined
that their new face would better suit their personality....Or maybe they
imagined that their personality would be forced to change to fit the new
appearance....This is why first impressions are often correct...

Although some people might have made mistakes....They may have arrived at an
appearance that bears no relationship to them.... They may have picked an
ideal appearance based on some childish whim, or momentary impulse....Some may
have gotten half-way there, and then changed their minds.

He wonders if he too might have made a similar mistake."

------
wamatt
While not conclusive, some of you may be surprised to discover that there
exists some evidence, for a physiological basis for the E/I spectrum.

An fMRI study of personality influences on brain reactivity to emotional
stimuli.
[http://spl.stanford.edu/pdfs/2001%20Behavioral%20Neuroscienc...](http://spl.stanford.edu/pdfs/2001%20Behavioral%20Neuroscience%20-%20An%20fMRI%20study%20of%20personality.pdf)

Neuroanatomical Correlates of Extraversion and Neuroticism (Neuroticism
correlates with introversion in this context)
[http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/12/1809.full](http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/12/1809.full)

Happy faces trigger different brain reactions in extroverts and introverts
[http://news.stanford.edu/news/2002/july10/sciencegab-710.htm...](http://news.stanford.edu/news/2002/july10/sciencegab-710.html)

and study:
[http://www.cogsci.msu.edu/DSS/2012-2013/Gabrieli/CanliScienc...](http://www.cogsci.msu.edu/DSS/2012-2013/Gabrieli/CanliScience-2002Personality.pdf)

An event-related potential analysis of extraversion and individual differences
in cognitive processing speed and response execution.
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10821201](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10821201)

Individual Differences in Amygdala-Medial Prefrontal Anatomy Link Negative
Affect, Impaired Social Functioning, and Polygenic Depression Risk
[http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/50/18087.full](http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/50/18087.full)

~~~
erikb
All the links don't really help to understand your point. What is an E/I
spectrum? Why should I be surprised? Sorry, not everybody here has a
scientific background in that area.

------
lucio
Have you noticed that "Unreliable -> Trustworthy" is also "Male -> Female"?

~~~
marcosdumay
Not only that, but the extrovert face has a smile and vivid eyes, while he
introvert one has tired eyes and a concentrated "smile". Also, the competent
face looks like he's paying attention, while the incompetent one does not.

Except for the trustworthy (that is female), every face seems to be decided on
current expression, instead of static traits.

~~~
zamalek
> while he introvert one has tired eyes and a concentrated "smile".

Who's more likely to sign up to a scientific study? An extrovert or an
introvert minding their own business? I can't prove it, but it would make
sense that there would be more extroverted volunteers.

The idea that I get [as an introvert] is that extroverts see introverts as
depressed precisely because extroverts would likely find that lifestyle
depressing. I myself find extroverts' lifestyles depressing. Given more
introvert volunteers in the study you might have found that the result of that
particular test may have been inverted.

The same principle may apply to all the other faces.

~~~
infinite8s
I don't believe the faces they showed in the article were from actual people,
but an attempt to take neutral averaged faces and digitally perturb certain
characteristics that have been identified as being relevant to trustworthiness
or extroversion.

------
NathanCH
The pile of evidence against ugly people continues to mount. Not even smiling
will save you.

~~~
nether
Don't even go down that rabbit hole. Don't read "Looks" by Gordon Patzer. It's
devastating to see the data if you are an ugly person.

------
mleonhard
In Taiwan, Korea, and many other Asian countries, job applicants are expected
to provide a color photograph in their resume. In Korea, many new graduates
get cosmetic surgery to improve their employment prospects. Face-ism is common
and unfortunate. It harms the efficiency of societies.

------
incision
I've recently come to realize that I'm consistently terrible at recognizing
faces.

Anecdotal of course, but at this point I've noticed and heard / seen it
demonstrated by other people enough to give me pause.

When I think about describing someone, it's almost always in terms of what
they've said - specific choices of words, tone or body language, certainly
never about the face.

If true, I wonder if this would be any sort of advantage / disadvantage?

~~~
chriskanan
You might consider being evaluated for prosopagnosia:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia)

There is a lot of research on the topic. I haven't seen any research that
suggests there might be advantages for having it, but it is an interesting
thought.

------
VLM
Just pointing out that WRT the reliability of the source, the same site's top
stories are:

"The Disappointment of Michael Sam Getting Cut From the Cowboys"

and

"How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy"

Not saying the other articles being fluff necessarily disprove this article,
but be really careful guys, this is just a thin slice above "The Onion" its
not exactly JAMA or Nature...

~~~
dubfan
The Atlantic should not be taken seriously any longer. They've been nothing
more than a slightly upmarket Buzzfeed for several years now.

------
bdr
An interesting "paradox": people at the two ends of the trustworthy-appearance
spectrum are the least incentivized to act trustworthy. Those on the right end
will get the benefit either way; those on the wrong end have to work too hard
to get the benefit. It is the people in the middle who gain the most from
acting trustworthy.

------
slingerofwheat
How much of this is a feedback loop?

Being perceived as more competent will open better opportunities and lead you
to be happier leading your face to be brighter more often and vice versa.

This is interesting to me, because personally, I feel like on happy days, good
things happen, and on sad days, people stay away and it becomes a vortex of
pain.

------
stronglikedan
This is interesting to me, as it kind of hits home. I'm more introverted than
extroverted, but I can be a true extrovert when I choose to be. I grew up with
the introverted face, and had trouble with relationships (friendships, really,
at that age). One day in high school, a girl that I liked told me that I
should smile more. I took that advice to heart, and from that day on, I told
myself that I would try to smile all-the-time.

Well, fast forward a couple of decades, and I can honestly say that that is
the one piece of advice that has stuck with me all of these years. The results
were instant and measurable. People, in general, treated me
differently...better. My social awkwardness faded to but a memory. So much so,
that I don't feel guilty doing introverted activities (which I do...a lot),
because I know I don't _have_ to be.

------
pizza
carsongross's comment got me thinking about how presidents have been regarded
(esp. George Bush in recent years). So I looked up how presidents have been
regarded over the years [0]. Salient quote, assuming rankings and competence
are somewhat compatible (maybe they aren't):

> Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Washington are
> consistently ranked at the top of the lists. Often ranked just below those
> Presidents are Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.

> The remaining places in the top ten are often rounded out by Harry S.
> Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, James K. Polk, and Andrew
> Jackson. Presidents such as John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton
> tend to be rated among the greatest in public opinion polls, but do not
> always rank as highly among presidential scholars and historians.

> The bottom ten often includes Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren G.
> Harding, Millard Fillmore, George W. Bush, Herbert Hoover, Martin Van Buren,
> Zachary Taylor, and John Tyler.

Now, compare that to their portraits [1]. Personally, the biggest example of
"face-ism" I can recall during my lifetime is George W. Bush's portrayal in
the media during his presidency. But I guess he also did screw some things
up...

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presiden...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States#General_findings)

[1]
[http://sonowiknowdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/allpresi...](http://sonowiknowdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/allpresidentslarge.jpg)

------
blablabla123
Quite interesting, although one shouldn't draw wrong conclusions like face-ism
from it. When the corners of your mouth point downwards, it's a sign that you
are afraid of something.

I guess being introvert doesn't imply to be afraid of something. More over,
introverts, by definition, are difficult to characterize, so most people will
have problems to detect introverts, rendering the title non-sense. ;)

------
jamespitts
Augmented reality might help offset facial structure bias, or even use it as a
sort of short cut. For example, AR could modify the faces around you based on
actual/relevant characteristics, including your own history with that person.
Your view would of course indicate where alterations were made.

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madaxe_again
I've kept on noticing myself, and others, doing this thing in meetings whereby
ones eyebrows are raised, eyes are wide open, and this makes sense in the
context of what this article talks about - it's a "trust me" face - and it
apparently works.

------
marincounty
I immediately trusted the first guy who wasen't smiling, but after reading the
article I started to doubt my first impression. I have been burned
financially, and personally by full time Smilers? Or, that guy who just seems
too happy for no reason?

------
aligajani
What if the extrovert has depression. Would look like the one on left.

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joshuaheard
Facial recognition starts in infancy, so it makes sense.

I would like to see an app that takes a picture of a face and gives you the
corresponding qualities.

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calebm
It's funny - I know a guy who I consider extremely unreliable, and the
"unreliable face" looks a lot like him.

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colordrops
The archetypical introvert looks a lot like Kevin Spacey. He definitely plays
introverts in many movies.

------
dharmach
Why unreliable, incompetent and introvert faces in the article look northern
and the other ones southern?

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nanexcool
So now I want a service where I can upload a pic and it'll tell me if I'm
trustworthy or not.

------
carsongross
But then Clinton looks like an incompetent introvert:

[http://kpbs.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/news/tease/20...](http://kpbs.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/news/tease/2012/10/31/Clinton_15_t700.jpeg)

so... there are mitigating factors.

~~~
ripter
Compared to Bob Dole, he looks confident, intelligent, and trustworthy.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_elec...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1996#mediaviewer/File:Bob_Dole,_PCCWW_photo_portrait.JPG)

------
kuni-toko-tachi
What nonsense like this does is focus on a small aspect of overall human
traits and then attempts to make generalizations to promote an ideological
agenda.

Bias is a valuable evolutionary trait and judgement is a fact of life.

You get dealt a hand of cards when you are born. You may have an "introvert"
face, but you might also have an above average IQ. "-isms" are cop outs that
play into a victimization narrative that is then used to drive political
agendas which ultimately are not beneficial to the supposed wrongs they
attempt to remedy.

This is a limitless world, and don't let fluff like this rain on your parade.
Get up, get out, and get doing. Enjoy the knocks along the way, and if you are
inclined to feel the underdog, use it to prove 'em wrong.

~~~
ejk314
It's still a problem, even if you can "enjoy the knocks along the way". You're
right that you shouldn't use this kind of thing as an excuse, but I think it's
valuable to be aware of it.

For example, if you've got a bias-inducing face then perhaps you can mitigate
that fact by avoiding face-to-face interviews and opting for phone interviews
whenever possible.

