﻿Facial attractiveness is an attribute that conveys an evolutionary advantage in the form of
increased mating success, and in today’s modern world, being attractive has even more benefits
in terms of earning potential and longevity. Although it may not sound fair, it is a well known
fact that attractive people have considerable advantage in all fields due to the first positive
impression effect or the so called halo effect they have on the people around them.
We know Facial attractiveness depends on various factors like facial symmetry, and proportion,
but it may surprise you to know that even your emotional state can have a significant effect
on your beauty. This fact can be beneficial to just about everyone as although not every factor
that determines beauty is modifiable, we can definitely alter our facial expressions to go
up the attractiveness ladder, and I’m not talking about your run of the mill Buzzfeed advice,
just smile more. Depending on how attractive you are, smiling less and appearing aloof
may actually have a better effect as the research shows but more on that in a bit.
From Sutherland, Young and Rhodes’ 2017 paper, we know that a positive expression,
like a smile, increases the attractiveness of the person and makes them seem more trustworthy,
regardless of the true intentions of that person. What you may not know however, is
that a neutral facial expression performs almost as well, and in reality, smiling only produces
a small benefit if any. Smiling when you’re significantly below average, will still lift your
spirits which is beneficial, but it won’t incline others to feel any more positively about you
or treat you differently, despite what feel-good articles tell you. From the results, angry or
scowling faces were seen as more dominant which is expected, but again, neutral faces performed a
very close second. Appearing dominant facially, is very important for men who are constantly
competing with each other, especially at work. Having a permanently angry facial expression won’t
earn you more respect in the workplace if you’re small and unintimidating, but sometimes having a
neutral, reactionless expression is actually more genuine and attractive. You do not need
to be smiling all the time to appear attractive, neutral expressions can work just as well,
especially for the less attractive faces. On the corollary it introduces another question,
how big of a benefit are your facial expressions to average or even unattractive faces? As it
turns out, not much. In last week’s video we looked at Angrilli Et al’s paper where negative
expressions of anger were seen as attractive on already facially attractive faces. When someone
you have a crush on reacts poorly with the waiter serving your food, you tend to miss the red flags.
When it’s someone you’re not attracted to, the authors suggested that it has the opposite effect
where you block it out or even react negatively yourself. From Lindeberg et al’s 2019 paper,
“a happy face advantage emerged for the attractive females but not for the unattractive females,
Corresponding results were only found in the error rates for male faces.” Smiles are a multiplier for
attractiveness, and it does not work additively. Mainstream advice that tells you otherwise and
to just smile more, is a bandaid solution that fails to acknowledge the pretty privilege bias
that’s inherent in all of us. As for the happy face advantage, it refers to a happy face being
recognised as happy faster than an angry one as angry. This ability to perceive emotions on
attractive faces faster is what gives them their advantage in being able to command extra attention
from others. From the findings, faces rated from a 1-7 likert scale showed a much bigger change for
the attractive faces when going from negative to positive emotions than for the unattractive ones.
As a channel and brand, we’ve always strived to provide research and advice for people of
all attractiveness ranges, rather than general advice that only works for attractive people.
While smiling will boost your attractiveness, if you don’t feel like it or it’s not genuine,
do not feel pressured to do so. So this begs the question why do we put on this
fake smile? In the Anglosphere, the main reason is cultural. Smiling is an important social cue
that conveys relatability and understanding. When your date cracks an off-colour joke, you smile to
ease the tension. When meeting someone for the first time, you smile to indicate that you’re
trustworthy and warm. This form of in-authentic communication is not the same everywhere.
In Eastern Europe, smiling is less common with the saying “laughing for no reason is a sign of
foolishness,” but that doesn’t mean that they’re unhappy, it’s just a cultural difference.
For photos we often give it a big cheesy smile to imitate the feeling of having a good time,
but if you’re actually having a good time, why would you need to be asked to pose a
smile? Different people express happiness or more importantly comfort in their own skin in different
ways. The issue isn’t with smiling per say, but being told ‘you would look prettier if you smiled
more’ is incredibly frustrating because some faces and aesthetics look better when serious,
especially in print and photography. Photographers in the modelling industry understand this very
well. For couture runways shows the atmosphere is serious and the models have a neutral to stern
pose to appear aloof and indifferent. We covered a similar concept in our Instagram vs Reality
special on the Kardashians, the Kardashian effect, where the entire clan poses in the same stern,
greater than thou way, to sell their exclusivity and worth. In contrast, for something more fun
and playful like Victorias Secret, the atmosphere is much more relaxed with live performances and
smiles all around to bring the audience in, the focus isn’t on the product but the personality
that the product brings. When the research says that a smile is used to convey trustworthiness,
it really means to bring the receiver in. When you don’t smile, it’s cold and standoffish,
creating an us vs them mentality. Both can create attraction and both can be attractive
in their own rights, but one suits a certain face type and aesthetic more than the other.
In general, people connect to other people whose emotions they can understand, and the easiest
emotion to understand is happiness. While our initial questions were on smiling and attraction,
being happy in general is huge in preserving skin texture, which as we’ve covered in our
other videos, influences attractiveness. Studies have found that emotion can affect
a person’s skin texture and composition by lowering the amount of collagen and elastin.
Loss of these vital skin proteins can make a person prone to develop unattractive facial lines,
and early onset wrinkles. A chronically angry or unhappy face is often clearly distinguishable from
multiple visible and permanent changes on the face as these people tend to develop baggy under eyes,
frown lines between the eyebrows, and even crows feet under the eyes. These lines are a consequence
of decreased protein and certain repeated facial expressions such as squinting of the eyes,
frowning and pursing of the lips. Being mindful of your expressions and mental state
will keep your skin smoother in the long run. Also those suffering from depression people tend
to be obese due to their habit of consuming sugar rich diet to experience a temporary surge in
dopamine. A study published in 1945 found a direct correlation between aging and consumption of sugar
due to the formation of glycated collagen which accelerates the aging process of skin
leading to early onset wrinkle formation, saggy skin and an overall dull skin appearance.
To summarise. If you’re attractive, then smiling a lot will benefit you more so than others. It’s a
larger multiplier. However, having a neutral facial expression is also not a bad thing.
We often get emails from viewers complaining about their RBF and the issue isn’t in the face itself,
because to us it looks perfectly normal, but instead it’s in how the anglosphere interprets
neutral expression as negative. We’re encouraged to smile as a tool of non-verbal communication
in the same vain that we open conversations with ‘how are you’ or ‘gday how ya doin.’ Some faces do
look better with a stern or serious expression while others benefit more from a smile. People
with puffy cheeks feel conscious about smiling as it makes the fake look overly round. Those with
lean cheeks prefer to smile more to emphasise their strong lower third. Smiling is just one
of the many facial expressions possible, but it isn’t the best pose for every face.
Being happy on the other hand, is necessary to keep your skin and health in check for longer.