4 ms·

First year phrenology student? Seriously, though. As I get older, I am starting to think there might actually be a strong correlation between how people look a

by oblak 4y ago

First year phrenology student? Seriously, though. As I get older, I am starting to think there might actually be a strong correlation between how people look and act. What I don't know for sure is which is first. Some is obviously nature bur nurture is obviously a thing, too.

MichaelCollins 4y ago
> I am starting to think there might actually be a strong correlation between how people look and act. I think the way people act influences the way their appearance is perceived in very subtle ways. A sketchy liar could have exactly the same bone structure as an honest man, but the sketchy liar will be perceived as less honest due to almost imperceptible differences in body language, the way they hold their facial muscles, etc. The result of these subtle differences can be detected with a vague sensation of "this guy is sketchy, he's probably about to lie to me." Also I think there is an element of truth to the old wive's tail of "your face is going to get stuck like that". People who frequently have malicious facial expressions in private will find themselves having malicious facial expressions when they don't mean to, when interacting with the people they intend to deceive. Maybe out of pure habit, or maybe because those muscles are just getting more exercise. Somebody who often has a lopsided smirk will develop muscles on one side of their face more than the other, and eventually they can't help but to smirk by default.
- SamPatt 4y ago
  The stereotype of nerds looking a certain way probably has a slight basis in truth. I've heard wearing eyeglasses is correlated to intelligence (though I assume weakly).
surfpel 4y ago
The brain is a physical structure. So is it inconceivable that some genes may code for phenotypes in both the brain and external appearance, or have some indirect purely biological relationship? I’m not suggesting that this would account for a significant portion of the correlation between external appearance and behavior (if any at all), but maybe it’s enough to be picked up subconsciously. Domestication syndrome seems to suggest a link. [1] 1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication_syndrome https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication_syndrome
somenameforme 4y ago
If one assumes behavior is largely driven by physical/chemical/electrical processes within our bodies then this would not be surprising. Those processes are going to affect our appearances and being able to roughly assess those processes in somebody else from a distance would be a top tier skill that evolution would certainly end up selecting for. A largely related example of this is smell [1]. I'm not referencing that particular study so much as the million other studies it also references and mentions early on. Our conscious appreciation of smell doesn't really reach much greater depth than "eww" or "aww", but there's a dramatically larger amount of subconscious processing that we do to come to that conclusion. For one fun example, men subconsciously rate the perceived attractiveness of a woman, based on a blind shirt sniff test, significantly higher when she is ovulating. Again, it's evolution baby. [2] As a random thought, this also goes some way to explaining the uncanny valley. When the pieces don't fit together into a coherent whole, the brain simply rejects the lot of it. [1] - https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-021-00311-3 https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/1... [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI

by oblak 4y ago

MichaelCollins 4y ago

> I am starting to think there might actually be a strong correlation between how people look and act. I think the way people act influences the way their appearance is perceived in very subtle ways. A sketchy liar could have exactly the same bone structure as an honest man, but the sketchy liar will be perceived as less honest due to almost imperceptible differences in body language, the way they hold their facial muscles, etc. The result of these subtle differences can be detected with a vague sensation of "this guy is sketchy, he's probably about to lie to me." Also I think there is an element of truth to the old wive's tail of "your face is going to get stuck like that". People who frequently have malicious facial expressions in private will find themselves having malicious facial expressions when they don't mean to, when interacting with the people they intend to deceive. Maybe out of pure habit, or maybe because those muscles are just getting more exercise. Somebody who often has a lopsided smirk will develop muscles on one side of their face more than the other, and eventually they can't help but to smirk by default.

SamPatt 4y ago
The stereotype of nerds looking a certain way probably has a slight basis in truth. I've heard wearing eyeglasses is correlated to intelligence (though I assume weakly).

surfpel 4y ago

The brain is a physical structure. So is it inconceivable that some genes may code for phenotypes in both the brain and external appearance, or have some indirect purely biological relationship? I’m not suggesting that this would account for a significant portion of the correlation between external appearance and behavior (if any at all), but maybe it’s enough to be picked up subconsciously. Domestication syndrome seems to suggest a link. [1] 1 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication_syndrome https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication_syndrome

somenameforme 4y ago

If one assumes behavior is largely driven by physical/chemical/electrical processes within our bodies then this would not be surprising. Those processes are going to affect our appearances and being able to roughly assess those processes in somebody else from a distance would be a top tier skill that evolution would certainly end up selecting for. A largely related example of this is smell [1]. I'm not referencing that particular study so much as the million other studies it also references and mentions early on. Our conscious appreciation of smell doesn't really reach much greater depth than "eww" or "aww", but there's a dramatically larger amount of subconscious processing that we do to come to that conclusion. For one fun example, men subconsciously rate the perceived attractiveness of a woman, based on a blind shirt sniff test, significantly higher when she is ovulating. Again, it's evolution baby. [2] As a random thought, this also goes some way to explaining the uncanny valley. When the pieces don't fit together into a coherent whole, the brain simply rejects the lot of it. [1] - https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41235-021-00311-3 https://cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/1... [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI