What is physiognomy and is it possible to guess a person's character by his face

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

This method originated in Antiquity, and now it is experiencing a new rise in popularity.

What is physiognomy

Physiognomy (from the ancient Greek words meaning "nature" and "interpreter") is a technique for determining temperament and character by the appearance of a person.

In a broader sense, it is a method of "reading in the face", finding out the state of health and predicting fate, a kind of fortune-telling Physiognomy. Britannica. In this form, physiognomy is often compared with astrology and other esoteric practices.

In some variations physiognomists study LP Parshukova, VM Karlyshev, ZA Shakurova Physiognomy. - Rostov-on-Don, 2004 not only a person's face, but also his facial expressions, gestures, posture, body structure and hairstyle.

How physiognomy was born and developed

Physiognomy as a method of determining temperament by appearance arose Physiognomy. Britannica for a long time. For example, it was an integral part of ancient Greek practical psychology: even Pythagoras could refuse to take a person who did not look gifted as a student.

Some researchers consider Physiognomy. Britannica Aristotle authored the first known treatise on physiognomy, but most likely it was one of his followers. Six chapters of this work are devoted to the definition of the preferred teaching method, character traits, strengths and weaknesses in appearance. The author compared the faces of people with the faces of different animals and argued, for example, that a nose with a thick tip is a sign of insensitivity, sharp noses belong to hot-tempered natures, and large and wide ones speak of a generous character.

Attention was also paid to the size of the head and the shape of the face in general. Thus, the author believed that people with large heads are prone to meanness; those with a small face are resilient, broad-faced are often stupid, and chubby ones are brave.

Physiognomy was used to make medical diagnoses and predict the future. It was also associated with the concept of Pythagoras about four temperaments (sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic), depending on the predominance of a certain fluid in the body - blood, phlegm, bile or black bile.

After the era of Antiquity, physiognomy again became popular only in the 16th century. Doctors, philosophers and scientists of the time, like their predecessors, were looking for clues to the human character. But if ancient physiognomy mainly described personality, then late medieval authors paid more attention to its astrological and predictive sides.

Even then there were also critics of physiognomy. For example, Leonardo da Vinci wrote that physiognomy and palmistry have nothing to do with truth. This, however, did not prevent him from claiming that hot-tempered people are characterized by wrinkles between the eyebrows.

One of the main physiognomists of that era was the Italian scientist Giambattista della Porta. He is called the father of physiognomy, and the idea of identifying personality traits in appearance was pushed to Jambattista by studies of alchemy.

Illustration from the book by Giambattista della Ports De Humana Physiognomonia. Image: Historical Anatomies on the Web

Illustration from the book by Giambattista della Ports De Humana Physiognomonia. Image: Historical Anatomies on the Web

Illustration from the book by Giambattista della Ports De Humana Physiognomonia. Image: Historical Anatomies on the Web

Illustration from the book by Giambattista della Ports De Humana Physiognomonia. Image: Historical Anatomies on the Web

Illustration from the book by Giambattista della Ports De Humana Physiognomonia. Image: Historical Anatomies on the Web

Illustration from the book by Giambattista della Ports De Humana Physiognomonia. Image: Historical Anatomies on the Web

Illustration from the book by Giambattista della Ports De Humana Physiognomonia. Image: Historical Anatomies on the Web

Illustration from the book by Giambattista della Ports De Humana Physiognomonia. Image: Historical Anatomies on the Web

The greatest popularity of physiognomy was acquired by Wiseman R., Highfield R., Jenkins R. How your looks betray your personality. NewScientist in the 18th – 19th centuries. A special role in this was played by the book "Essays on Physiognomy" by the Swiss philosopher Johann Caspar Lavater. This four-volume work contained detailed instructions for "reading" the main parts of the face. Lavater also believed that physical beauty is a sign of spiritual beauty, and suggested interpreting wrinkles on a person's face, as a palmist explains the lines on the palm.

Physiognomy was tried in the 19th century. Britannica used to identify potential criminals, but to no avail.

Thus, the Italian psychiatrist and criminologist Cesare Lombroso considered Simon M. Fantastically Wrong: The Scientist Who Seriously Believed Criminals Were Part Ape. WIRED that criminals are evolutionarily the lowest level, so they look more like monkeys than people. Lombroso compared the facial features of the alleged villains with those of the "savage" tribes.

At one time, physiognomy almost changed the history of science. Young Charles Darwin, due to the shape of his nose, could not be taken on a round-the-world expedition by Captain Robert Fitzroy, who was fond of Lavater's theory. The naturalist "saved" his high forehead, which supposedly speaks of a developed intellect. On this journey, the great biologist laid the foundations for his future discoveries - the theory of evolution and natural selection.

Later, when the connection between physiognomy and phrenology (the concept of the dependence of the human psyche on the structure of the skull), which gained notoriety due to the rigging of the results of experiments, was discovered, the popularity of "face reading" became Wiseman R., Highfield R., Jenkins R. How your looks betray your personality. NewScientist to subside. Already in the 1920s, the results of the use of physiognomy were assessed negatively: it was for the first time proved that the description of character by appearance can lead to extremely contradictory conclusions.

Nevertheless, this did not prevent Karl Hüter's concept of psycho-physiognomy from spreading. His theory suggested that you can change your character for the better with the help of a special diet and exercise.

What is physiognomy based on

Physiognomic analysis can Parshukova L. P., Karlyshev V. M., Shakurova Z. A. Physiognomy. - Rostov-on-Don, 2004 based on:

• the connection of facial zones with the seasons and the environment;
• comparing facial features with astrological signs;
• geometry of individual parts of the face.

According to the supporters of the theory, everyone can identify some traits of a person's character by his appearance, even without having special knowledge. That is why we are supposedly able to draw truthful conclusions about the personality of complete strangers.

Physiognomists, as a rule, divide L. P. Parshukova, V. M. Karlyshev, Z. A. Shakurova Physiognomy. - Rostov-on-Don, 2004 face into three zones (however, there are other variants of delimitation):

1. Intellectual- forehead.
2. Emotional- eyebrows, eyes, nose, upper cheeks.
3. Vital(energetic, "live") - lips, chin and cheekbones.

If during measurement all these parts are equal, it is considered Parshukova L. P., Karlyshev V. M., Shakurova Z. A. Physiognomy. - Rostov-on-Don, 2004, that a person lives in harmony between the vital, emotional and intellectual spheres.

Modern physiognomists are looking for ways to make their methods more Wiseman R., Highfield R., Jenkins R. How your looks betray your personality. NewScientist scientifically grounded. They conduct psychological research and experiments (about them below), create systems for automatic determination of character and temperament, even sexual orientation and political views in the face.

However, physiognomy in its ancient, magical understanding has not disappeared anywhere either. A specialist in this field of knowledge can quite seriously suggest Simon M. Fantastically Wrong: The Silly Theory That Almost Kept Darwin From Going on His Famous Voyage. WIRED women choose men with a big nose as their partners, which supposedly speaks of financial security.

Why physiognomy is experiencing a new round of popularity today

Physiognomy as a predictive concept is definitely a pseudoscience, on a par with astrology or alchemy. It is much more interesting that modern science comes to the conclusion that every person is more or less a physiognomist, while sometimes quite successful in his conclusions.

Our ideas about the connection between the exterior and the inner world are still strong. And they have penetrated deeply into popular culture: in animation and cinema, we often see stupid or evil characters who are ugly at the same time Waldorf S. Physiognomy, The Beautiful Pseudoscience. Getty Iris Blog.

Studies show that to compose the first impression of a person, from 0.1 to 0.5 seconds is enough for us, and according to other sources, 0.04 seconds will be enough. That is, to understand whether we like a person or not, it takes only a moment. And it will not be easy to overcome the first impression later.

At the same time, we can really guess some character traits, such as responsibility and extraversion, by the appearance of people.

The fact is that certain features of the face, apparently, are really related to behavior. So, scientists have found that men with a wide and short face, testosterone levels and a tendency to aggression are above average. Another study concluded that such people are more likely to cheat in negotiations.

The simplest features, such as the angularity or roundness of the face, serve as signals of threat or goodwill for us. As the drawing of the eyes of a predator in the color of butterflies scares away birds that feed on them, so we react to a person based on the shape and structure of his face.

It is believed that self-fulfilling prophecies are at work here. That is, if we expect a certain behavior from a person, he begins to manifest himself accordingly. However, there are exceptions. For example, men who look much younger than their age often try Wiseman R., Highfield R., Jenkins R. How your looks betray your personality. NewScientist to refute the impression of themselves: they study better and try to achieve more, assertive and more often commit crimes.

Appearance can significantly affect our actions and lives. For example, defendants whose faces are not credible are more often Wiseman R., Highfield R., Jenkins R. How your looks betray your personality. NewScientist find themselves in prison. And people who look attractive are often considered more friendly and more successful. Appearance indicators play an important role when choosing a partner.

All this gives rise to the flourishing of a new type of physiognomy. For example, there is a startup Job BestFitMe, which offers artificial intelligence services to companies and governments, which supposedly can tell about a person's professional suitability from a photograph.

Why are physiognomy data contradictory

The connection between people's faces and their character is too weak and fuzzy, and predictions made by appearance are often wrong.

How we evaluate each other depends primarily on our worldview and experience.

A joint study by psychologists from the Netherlands, Israel and the United States showed that at the moment of acquaintance we react to how a person's face relates to those that we saw earlier. We remember the appearance of our offenders and well-wishers and on this basis we form the images of “enemies” and “friends”. The more the interlocutor's face matches one of these averaged samples, the more positive or negative we perceive it.

And the point here is not at all in the innate ability to find the relationship between the appearance and behavior of a person. Most likely, the tendency to judge people by their appearance is the evolutionary Wiseman R., Highfield R., Jenkins R. How your looks betray your personality. NewScientist is a mechanism that helped our ancestors to distinguish theirs from strangers.

However, based on these prejudices, we, for example, cannot tell how honest a person is from a person's face. The criteria for evaluating male faces are not always suitable for a similar "reading" of women. And most importantly: the better we are guided in a particular area, the less influence on us the appearance of a person has. For example, people who are versed in politics are practically not subject to superficial judgments about candidates during elections.

The fact that we are not very accurate in assumptions about personality based on appearance is confirmed by frequent errors in first impressions.

Numerous studies, allegedly proving the possibility of guessing the nature and even the type of human activity in appearance, in fact, turn out to be methodologically inaccurate. For example, participants in the experiments were able to determine whether people belong to one of two political parties only by comparing pairs of photographs. When it was necessary to choose from a variety of portraits or the ratio of representatives of different parties was not the same, the test subjects did much worse.

Already low (about 57% of correct answers with a 50% probability of an accidental "hit"), the results of such experiments approach when the conditions become more complicated Todorov A. Can We Read a Person's Character from Facial Images? Scientific American to statistical error (52-51.5%).

You need to understand that not only the face, but also demographic factors: gender, nationality, race, age plays a big role in assessing a person's appearance. At the same time, the perception of different people will also be different: the criteria for attractiveness and benevolence are different for everyone. And the same person can Todorov A. Can We Read a Person's Character from Facial Images? Scientific American looks different depending on mood, angle and lighting, camera settings, and so on.

The same photos can be misleading. Indeed, depending on the purpose of the shooting, we will demonstrate the corresponding intentions on them. Therefore, photographs in a passport and on a dating site can cause completely different reactions.

If we talk about AI, then professor at Princeton University, psychologist Alexander Todorov believes Todorov A. Can We Read a Person's Character from Facial Images? Scientific American that the algorithm has the same biases as its creators. That is, the description of a person by a computer will not differ much from the guesses of people.

The motivation of physiognomists and researchers trying to find the relationship between the inner world and appearance is understandable: we want to typologize those around us in order to better understand ourselves. Nevertheless, there are no convincing ways to detect patterns here - at least not yet.

You can actually guess some of the personality traits of a person by looking at their face. But the reliability of such a conclusion will be extremely low. Therefore, one should be wary of physiognomy, and certainly one should not hope to find out the future with its help.