Here's how your personality can be judged based on the appearance of your face

“People form personality impressions from others’ facial appearance within only a few hundred milliseconds. Our findings suggest that face impressions are shaped not only by a face’s specific features but also by our own beliefs about personality, for instance, the cues that make a face look competent and make a face look friendly are physically more similar for those who believe competence and friendliness co-occur in other people’s personalities, “observes senior study author Jonathan Freeman.



“And yet they are consequential, as previous research has found face impressions to predict a range of real-world outcomes, from political elections, to hiring decisions, criminal sentencing, or dating,” said Freeman. It's also a given that we do form certain impressions of people based on their face, for example, someone with babyish features is seen as agreeable and harmless whereas someone with a face that resembles anger can be viewed as dishonest and unfriendly.



The results of the research showed that most traits perceived from others’ faces are not unique. A few core traits drive the process but otherwise they're derived from one another. “For instance, while a face may not appear right away to be conscientious, it may appear to be agreeable, intelligent, and emotional, personality traits a perceiver may believe underlie creativity, resulting in them seeing a face as conscientious,” adds lead study author Stolier. Stay tuned for more updates.