By ROBIN NIXON - LIVESCIENCE
Added: Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 UTC

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Is he trustworthy? Forget what the songs say about his kiss, and check out the breadth of his cheekbones.

Men with wider faces are not only perceived as untrustworthy, they may deserve the reputation, according to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science.

In a computerized game, broad-faced men were more likely to exploit others for personal monetary gain, explained lead researcher Michael Stirrat of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. And other players expected this behavior. The study did not address female trustworthiness.

A growing body of science is showing that facial configuration — placement of the eyes, width of the cheekbones and so on — provides clues to a person's personality, including likelihood to be extroverted, conscientious and, now, trustworthy. While this analysis is not unfailing, it works slightly more often than not.

The trust game

During the study, a participant was shown an expressionless photo of a fellow player's face at the start of each game. The participant then had to decide whether to take an immediate pay-off or entrust the money to the person in the snapshot — who, in turn, could decide to either, cooperate and help both players make more money, or take the cash and run.

Participants were more likely to entrust money to people with narrower faces, a characteristic measured by dividing the face width by the distance between the upper lip and upper eyelid. Photos of all participants were analyzed when the games were completed, allowing researchers to see a correlation between slim faces and actual trustworthy behavior.

In another experiment using digitally manipulated photographs, people chose between wide and narrow versions of the same face. Out of 285 participants, 165 said the narrower faces looked more worthy of trust.

"The effect is not huge, but there is a significant bias for trusting narrow male faces," Stirrat said. "And we are biased in the right direction."
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In addition to information and links in the article Michael Stirrat can be found on his Perception Lab page and on his blog Bizygomatic

TAGGED: PSYCHOLOGY