Do you ever take the time to look at a person’s face to see what it is communicating? We naturally decode emotions such as happiness, and sadness, anger and surprise, but do you look at a face deeper for more revealing information?
To my surprise most people don’t.
Do you look to see if someone is open or closed off? For example, in the photo above, do you think the girl would be receptive to you if you made a request to help you pick up some books in a school library? Or do you think she’d reject you? And why do you think that?
Do you think this girl is an extrovert or an introvert?
I don’t personally know this child, but she reveals key elements about her personality by her facial features and expression. She shows a very slight shyness. Can you see it? Yet she shows a symmetrical face. Symmetrical people are often very outgoing. Yet she shows a “grounded nature” about her–no arrogance or superiority. These attributes all can give you an indication of how someone might behave, if you think about it.
A slightly shy person is likely to be very polite. A symmetrical faced-person is likely quite social in comfortable settings. With these two things, I suspect this young girl would be helpful when asked to assist someone in a safe environment such as a library. She would be very polite.
Can you see that?
Faces reveal so much information about people, it’s truly astounding. And once you can discern a few elements from a face, you can logically deduce many other attributes about people successfully.
Take for example someone who shows tension on their face, when you see anger, do you think that person has a higher propensity to lash out? Of course they do. It’s not a guarantee, but its a higher propensity. Compare that person to a person with a relaxed happy face who shows a sign of anger. Do you think they would have a high probability to lash out? Not near as likely.
Here is an article that talks about some of the discoveries science is making about our face and personality:
Does Your Face Tell Anything About Your Personality?
Next time you have a few minutes, look at someone’s face and ponder some basic questions. Can you see if they are introverted or extroverted? Are they tense? Do they appear relaxed? Are their signs of stress in the face? What can these reveal?