Category: Social psychology

People look more attractive when gazing in this way.

Looking directly at someone makes you more attractive to them. People were particularly attracted to opposite-sex faces that were looking at them and smiling. Dr Claire Conway, the study’s first author, said:

“When asked to think of examples of attractive facial characteristics, most people think of physical traits such as healthy looking skin, symmetrical features or a strong jaw. Here we show that gaze direction can also be important for attraction.”

People in the study looked at a series of pictures in which faces were sometimes looking at the viewer and sometimes away (e.g. below). Different facial expressions were also tested. Dr Conway explained the results:

“Faces that were looking directly at the viewer were judged more attractive than faces with averted gaze. This effect was particularly pronounced if the face was smiling and the opposite sex to the viewer. This shows that people prefer faces that appear to like them and that attraction is not simply about physical beauty. It is possible that our brains are wired this way to allow us to invest our time in attracting members of the opposite sex who seem the most receptive to our interest in them.”

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The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B (Conway et al., 2008).

Allure might be hiding in the angle of your face.

Women look more attractive to men when they tilt their head down and look upwards slightly.

Men, though, should tilt their heads back a little and look down their noses to appear more attractive to women.

It is thought that the effect is down to the usual difference in height between men and women.

Looking upwards helps reinforce a woman’s femininity and looking downwards reinforces a man’s masculinity.

The study used computer-generated models of male and female faces that were tilted upwards or downwards.

Each face with a different tilt was evaluated by 130 people for attractiveness and masculinity.

Male faces were judged more masculine and attractive when tilted backwards while women’s faces benefited from being tilted downwards.

Dr Darren Burke, study co-author, said:

“We investigated whether looking at a face from different perspectives as a result of the height differences between men and women influenced perceived masculinity or femininity.

The research found the way we angle our faces affects our attractiveness to the opposite sex.”

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The study was published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology (Sulikowski et al., 2015).

The trick works well when other people already see you as competent.

A small mishap or blunder can make you more likable, research finds.

In the psychology study, people spilled a cup of coffee over themselves, after which people rated them as more attractive.

The blunder made people appear more human and approachable.

The trick works well when other people already see you as competent.

The authors explain that talented people are sometimes disliked by others:

“…group members who are considered the most able are not necessarily the best liked.

It has also been demonstrated that people who initiate the most ideas and are acknowledged as the best “idea” men [or women] by other members of their group are usually not the best liked group members.

A great deal of ability, in and of itself, might make the stimulus person seem “too good,” unapproachable, distant, non-human.”

Called the ‘pratfall effect’ by psychologists, it relies on the blunderer already being seen as confident.

In contrast, the incompetent blunderer is seen as less attractive after a pratfall.

So, just knocking things over, spilling drinks and slipping on bananas all day won’t do the trick!

The study’s authors write:

“Taken as a whole, these data support the contention that a blunder on the part of a superior person removes the onus of being “too good”; it increases his approachability and makes him seem less austere, more human-while a blunder on the part of a mediocre person makes him seem that much more mediocre.”

The study was published in the journal Psychonomic Science (Aronson et al., 1966).