A person's reliability is assessed by the face
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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In business matters, people rely more on those whose appearance inspires confidence, regardless of whether one can really trust this person.
Success in business enterprises depends more on the ability to inspire confidence in others.
It is difficult for a person to give up the tendency to judge the character and moral qualities of other people by their appearance. As experiments of psychologists from Warwick University (Great Britain) have shown, even in important monetary matters, we assess the reliability of a partner in the face.
Scientists used dozens of photographs of different people, each of them present in two forms: one face inspired confidence, the other - hardly. Both facial expressions were exacerbated to the extreme with the help of a photo editor, but, according to the authors of the work, unnatural caricature in the used pictures was not.
Then the psychologists invited several volunteers to play a financial game. Each was given a certain amount of money from which it was possible to give some part to a trusted person - from those who were captured in photographs. According to the conditions of the game, the given amount was tripled, but the trustee decided which part of the return was to be returned. That is, the subjects had to evaluate by photo, which of the trustees will be the most honest and will return more money.
As the researchers write in the web magazine PLoS ONE, thirteen people out of fifteen gave the most money to those whose face was most trusted. After that, the psychologists provided the guinea pigs with information on each of the candidates in the photo, and it turned out that some were extremely unreliable partners, while others, on the contrary, were extremely faithful. But, as it turned out, these data - nothing before the visual impression of appearance. If two equally trusting persons passed before the person, only one person, according to the accompanying information, was a swindler, and the second was an honest businessman, then an honest man had only 6 percent advantage over the dishonest.
In other words, the decision on whether to trust a person or not is almost completely accepted by us on the basis of the appearance of the alleged partner. So do not laugh at those who have been fooled by a fraudster who has become a trusted confidant: an open face, a strong handshake and a direct look can also lead you around your finger, even if you are in both ears shouting that you can not be trusted. On the other hand, you can advise those who are going to an important interview to practice their acting skills: the ability to portray an honest guy is more useful than experience, education and recommendations.
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