First Impressions are Crucial: Make Yours the Best
Did you know that your facial expressions can alter the way people perceive you? Duh, right?
We’re all very familiar with the phrase “resting bitch face” and from just that phrase we can see the effect. People gather their first impression about a new individual quicker than you would imagine. Instantly, in fact. Kinda scary that you could be deemed a bitch immediately from someone’s first impression of you. Isn’t it?
First impressions, as you can imagine, are pretty damn crucial in the dating game. If someone sees something they like right from the get-go, they will want to learn more. If they see something negative, you’ll be swiped to the left without a second thought. We’re visual creatures who are constantly drawing impressions and perception from what we see, so we might as well use this to our benefit!
To test this out, a study examined how people would land on their first impression of a person through simply looking at an image of their face.
The study found 3 main relationships between physical the features of faces and the perception of social traits
The traits explained:
Approachability
“Does this person want to help or harm me?”
Dominance
“Can this person help or harm me?”
Youthful-Attractiveness
“Is this person a good romantic partner or a rival?”
Findings:
Approachability: All in the mouth.
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Mouth area
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Mouth height
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Mouth width
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Mouth gap
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Bottom lip curve
Youthful-Attractiveness: all in the eyes.
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Eye area
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Iris area
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Eye height
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Eye width
For dominance: all over more “masculine” features.
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Eyebrow height
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Cheek gradient
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Eye gradient
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Skin saturation
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Skin value variation
The photo above is rated least to most in each scale. Going from the left to the right. These traits can be adapted to by holding your face specific ways, training your expressions, or makeup looks such as contouring. First impressions are KEY, so be aware of how you’re coming off if you want to get ahead during an intercation with someone new.
When in doubt, smile!!!
