Your face could say a lot about your personality. Photos / Getty Images
Your face could say a lot about your personality. Photos / Getty Images
According to a new study, men with wide faces have higher levels of testosterone and are therefore more likely to consider cheating on their partners and inhibit promiscuous ideals.
Researchers at Nipissing University, Ontario, interviewed 145 undergraduates in relationships about their sex lives, asking them how often they felt desire and how many times they masturbated in a typical month. The students with a larger facial width-to-height ratio registered higher on the scoring of these questions.
Men with wide faces are also thought to more likely to show signs of prejudice, psychopathy, financial success, ambition, questionable ethics and attractiveness.
But what of the more elongated faces? And what can we tell about someone's personality traits from other defining facial characteristics?
Men with a longer face such as Prince William are thought to be more intelligent. Photo / Getty Images
Why the long face, you braniac? A study published in the journal PLoS One in 2014 found men (though not women) with a long face and wide-set eyes are perceived as more intelligent.
160 participants (75 men and 85 women) were asked to rate the photographs of 80 Czech university students (40 men and 40 women). The findings revealed that both men and women were able to accurately evaluate the intelligence of men from the photographs. Those with a narrower face, a thinner chin, and a larger, prolonged nose fitted the predicted stereotype of a higher IQ.
This might give an indication as to why your boss undervalues you at work. Although, it's more likely to be you reading this article when you should be looking over those important accounts. Tut-tut.
TRUSTWORTHY EYES
Would you trust Tom Hanks? His eyes seem to suggest that you should. Photo / Getty Images
In 2007, researchers at Örebro University in Sweden were able to link the iris patterns in our eye to certain personality traits. They found that a low frequency of crypts (wavy lines radiating out from the pupil) was associated with trustworthy and tender personalities.
On the other hand, distinct and extended furrows (circular lines curving around the outer edge of the iris) were associated with impulsiveness.
BIG NOSES ARE AMBITIOUS
Owen Wilson's big schnozz may have given him an edge in the acting world. Photo / Getty Images
A study of 1,700 photos of faces, or more specifically their noses, was published in the Journal of Craniofacial Surgery in 2013. The report was able to find 14 different nose types and associate them with different personality types.
Apparently, a person with a large nose tip is a financial planner, whereas if the tip is small or pointed, they don't have much interest in money.
Large nostrils are meant to indicate a generous spender - but if all of the nose is large that indicates that the person in question has an ambitious personality. They also tend to be perfectionists so there can be no such thing as a rocky path to greatness for the large nosed folk out there.
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
Singer Sam Smith's rounded jaw and short face shape was linked to his sexual orientation, according to a 2013 study. Photo / Getty Images
40 gay and 40 straight people were studied by researchers at Charles University in Prague in 2013, to discern whether sexual orientation was linked to the shape of a man's face. According to the study: "Gay men showed relatively wider and shorter faces, smaller and shorter noses, and rather massive and more rounded jaws, resulting in a mosaic of both feminine and masculine features."
The researchers however were quick to point out the small size of the study group. There are suggestions that heterosexual men will hold their faces in particular facial expressions (eyebrows down, jaw clenched) when trying to attract a member of the same or the opposite gender.
CURVED EYEBROWS SHOW KINDNESS
Do John Boyega's eyebrows give away his kindness? Photo / Getty Images
According to face reader Jean Haner, we can tell a lot from someone's eyebrows. Those with curved eyebrows are kind and considerate, straight eyebrows belong on logical people and if you have diagonal eyebrows your more inclined to react to a situation.
Face reading or physiognomy has its origins in Ancient Greece, particularly among philosophers Aristotle and Pythagoras. It fell out of popularity in the Middle Ages, but is having a bit of a resurgence at the moment as scientists try and prove the face reader's insights.
While there's not yet much scientific proof behind the art of face-reading, it's still a fun test to play against your mates.
