| Author |
Message |
jamiejah
Low Seater
Joined: Mar 21, 2004
Posts: 3010
Status: Offline
|
 Posted:
Mar 23, 2005 - 11:48 AM |
 
|
| Post subject: more news from scotland |
Can you trust someone by looking at their face?
JIM MCBETH AND FRANK URQUHART
LOOK into the eyes of these faces and what do you see? Someone you feel you could trust - or someone you would cross the road to avoid? You will be surprised about why you made the decision.
According to research published yesterday, we make instant decisions on whether to trust people on one aspect of their looks alone.
So what do we look for in a person’s face; how do we know instinctively that we could trust them with our secrets? A physical attraction to a warmth in the eyes, a reassuring smile?
The research shows that instinctive trust - or distrust - is rooted a lot closer to home.
A study by Dr Lisa DeBruine, an honorary visiting researcher at the schools of psychology at the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews, discovered we instinctively trust faces which most physically resemble our own - and contrary to a popular misconception, it has little to do with sex appeal.
In fact, Dr DeBruine’s findings reinforce the old adage that opposites do attract. She discovered that men and women appear to have a physical aversion to members of the opposite sex who look like themselves.
Dr DeBruine found that we reject attraction to our lookalikes because subconsciously, we are defending ourselves against the taboo of incest and the possibility of inbreeding.
Lookalikes may be trustworthy, but they are not "lustworthy", she says. The psychologist examined the reactions of 144 students - 66 male and 78 female - who were asked to "judge" a series of paired faces of the opposite sex. Unknown to the students, one of the paired faces had been electronically manipulated to subtly resemble their own. The other photograph was a complete stranger.
The undergraduates were asked which of the two faces looked trustworthy and which was sexually attractive. Invariably, the students chose the stranger for sex appeal and the lookalike for trustworthiness.
Dr DeBruine said: "It was surprising. Before this study it was thought that, because of what we call the ‘mere exposure hypothesis’, just looking at something makes you like it more. People thought that would explain all the previous findings about preferences for faces that look like our own.
"But I found that while you have preferences for the same-sex faces that look like your own, we have a more sophisticated learning process when it comes to opposite sex faces. "They were averse to faces that looked like their own in a sexual context; they disliked them."
Dr DeBruine said it revealed that people use facial resemblance as a cue that somebody might be "related" to them: "Everybody knows about ‘inbreeding avoidance’. You shouldn’t be mating with brothers and sisters. This study shows that we find people who are closely ‘related’ to us unattractive in a sexual sense. It supports the idea that people, perhaps unwittingly, detect facial resemblance and, on some level, it means this person is ‘family’ - and more trusting."
Dorothy Rowe, a psychologist, author of Friends and Enemies and an expert on the dynamics of trust in relationships, said: "I’d concur with the findings. We trust those we ‘know’ and we may distrust those we ‘don’t know’. I use ‘know’ and ‘don’t know’ in a wider cultural sense.
"We can trust by instinct, but research has shown that can change with our experience. Look at how, in the early days, we trusted Tony Blair’s face. Do we trust it now? Don’t think so.
"The face of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, may not have Blair’s regularity, but, now, we are preferring his rugged Scottishness.
"We also tend to trust those who physically resemble people we know. I remember as a child being very confused when I realised that the world distrusted the Russian leader, Josef Stalin. He looked exactly like my dad! How could we not trust him, I asked. Encouraging and creating trust is the holy grail of PR, advertising and politicians. As one PR guru famously said: ‘If we can fake sincerity, we have it made’. Politicians seek to do that on a daily basis."
Michael Green, of the Learning Fountain Network, who is an expert on the psychology of trust, believes we will also settle for "second best" because of our need to trust.
He said: "When you want a leak fixed in your house, you can turn to Yellow Pages, but most likely you’ll turn to someone you know and trust. However, the reality is your best friend doesn’t necessarily know the best plumber in the town. You, however, are willing to sacrifice getting the best because your friend recommended him."
Research has also shown that we trust certain groups more than others.
A recent study in the US and Britain revealed that more than 80 per cent of us trust clergymen and doctors; 79 per cent will listen to scientists and judges and a marginally smaller percentage believe what the police tell them. However, we are least likely to trust politicians and, for some reason, journalists.
True trust can only properly be engendered on a one-to-one basis, according to another study in the US, which concluded: "Human relations are emphasised by the value of co-operation and collaboration."
The study - Trustworthy but not lust-worthy: Context-specific effects of facial resemblance, appears in the Biological Series of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.
Delivery formats for "UK"
[more info]
* XML feed of this page (RSS) RSS feed
* JavaScript feed of this page JavaScript feed
* Email Add to my email
UK: Page 1
Hospital cover-up claims as MRSA kills baby
Police kill 'gentle Christian' in road drama
Can you trust someone by looking at their face?
Rebellious consumers shun 'faceless' shopping
£60m fraud trial collapses after 21 months in court
Warning over sky-high air charges
Warnings after 'big cat' sightings in suburb
Government will not stand in way of Queen Camilla
Widow wins battle over £7m will
Music-mad Brits buy most albums in world, leading industry revival
Black the new gold for botanists
Terror suspect taken to hospital after overdose
'Babies grow up prefering foods which look like old favourites'
Protestants feel they got raw deal on Good Friday
Britain set to prepare for up to 750,000 bird flu deaths
Page 1 of 5 next page
THE SCOTSMAN ARCHIVE
the scotsman archive Browse your history in The Scotsman's searchable archive - from 1817 to 1930
RBS SIX NATIONS
rbs six nations
News - Results - Prizes
GUIDE TO NET CULTURE
guide to net culture Apple sues 3 bloggers and opens up a debate on what 'proper' journalism is
HEROES AND VILLAINS
heroes and villains Pte Beharry receives a VC for bravery & Sinn Fein tells McCartneys to "be careful"
TERRORISM IN THE UK
terrorism in the uk How should the government be dealing with the present terrorist threat to the UK?
NORTHERN IRELAND
northern ireland Sinn Fein is coming under increasing pressure after recent events in the Province
PHOTO GALLERY
photo gallery
Browse our award-winning photos and buy online.
JOBS.SCOTSMAN.COM
jobs.scotsman.com
find your perfect job >>
©2005 Scotsman.com | contact Back To Top |
|
|
|
|
jamiejah
Low Seater
Joined: Mar 21, 2004
Posts: 3010
Status: Offline
|
| Posted:
Mar 23, 2005 - 01:08 PM |
|
|
Jamiejah, i've given up reading or even looking at your posts, they are so long and un-intersting mate.
votes needed folks
are people to quick to judge
do people see eye to eye
express your opinions
but remember to vote
every little vote counts |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Forum FAQ
Search
Preferences
Watched Topics
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
