• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
People ‘don’t really know’ what they look like, professor says

Home> Community> Life

Published 13:47 28 Aug 2024 GMT+1

People ‘don’t really know’ what they look like, professor says

You may think you recognize your face pretty well, but your perception isn't as 'perfect' as you think

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck

No matter how many times you look in the mirror or take selfies, it turns out you 'don't really know what' you actually look like.

You may've been stuck with the same - albeit now slightly more wrinkly and tired-looking - face for all your years lived on the planet, but how well do you really know your own profile?

The confusion

Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and then see yourself in a selfie and then on an Android compared to an iPhone and question why you look so different in each image?

Well, thankfully, you're not alone.

Advert

One Twitter user wrote: "Idk what it’s called but does anyone feel they don’t know what they look like truly ?? like pictures u take urself and pictures people take of u or looking in the mirror are all different forms of u and it’s just ...... infuriating and confusing and makes u wanna cry."

Another added: "I literally don’t even recognize myself anymore. I look in the mirror and I swear that isn’t me, or at least not who I thought I have been for the past couple of months, like all I can see is a totally different person."

And a third commented: "This sounds BONKERS but I literally have no idea what I look like??? and I'm not even talking about makeup I deada** feel like I have a completely different face in every camera/phone/mirror/lighting."

And there's actually an explanation for why you don't really seem to know your own face.

Advert

Do you feel like you really know your own face? (Getty Stock Images/ Catherine Falls Commercial)
Do you feel like you really know your own face? (Getty Stock Images/ Catherine Falls Commercial)

The explanation

Professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the author of Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want, Nicholas Epley told The Atlantic: "The interesting thing is that people don’t really know what they look like.The image you have of yourself in your mind is not quite the same as what actually exists."

A study led by Epley and Erin Whitchurch, published in Sage Journals in 2008 - titled Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Enhancement in Self-Recognition - saw participants complete a series of experiments to test how well they know their own face.

Advert

And unfortunately the image you have of yourself in your own mind is probably 'more physically attractive than' you 'actually are'.

Do you ever look at a selfie you've taken and question why it doesn't look like you? (Getty Stock Images/ Elvira Kashpova)
Do you ever look at a selfie you've taken and question why it doesn't look like you? (Getty Stock Images/ Elvira Kashpova)

In each experiment, participants' faces were made 'more of less attractive using a morphing procedure' which went up or down by 10 percent increments - attractiveness valued on factors such as symmetry.

Participant were then asked to identify their own face out of the line up and results showed they selected the more conventionally attractive versions of their faces 'more quickly'.

Advert

They also tended to pick the faces which had been made 20 percent more attractive than their own - which Epley notes isn't 'wildly off' and doesn't mean you 'think you look like Brad Pitt'.

And that didn't just stop with how participants viewed their own faces either.

"This enhancement bias occurred for both one's own face and a friend's face but not for a relative stranger's face," the study explains.

Participants identifying of the enhanced images of themselves was ultimately 'correlated with implicit measures of self-worth but not with explicit measures, consistent with this variety of enhancement being a relatively automatic rather than deliberative process'.

Advert

Epley ultimately resolved: "You’re an expert at your own face, but that doesn’t mean you’re perfect at recognizing it."

Featured Image Credit: Getty/yacobchuk/Getty/MOAimage

Topics: Beauty, Psychology, Science, Weird

Poppy Bilderbeck
Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

a day ago
2 days ago
  • a day ago

    Men who own ‘world’s oldest burger’ from McDonald's share what it looks like 29 years after purchasing

    The pair have previously confirmed McDonald's is well aware of the 'Senior Burger'

    Community
  • a day ago

    People disgusted by how Trump worded his response to if he'd ever visited Epstein's island

    People have called out the president for what he said about visiting an island formerly owned by Jeffrey Epstein

    Community
  • a day ago

    Shocking percentage of people that masturbate at work after boss gives employees half-hour pleasure breaks

    The woman, dubbed the 'queen of ethical porn' officially wrote the practise into company policy in 2022

    Community
  • 2 days ago

    Daughter issues heartbreaking warning after mom dies following ‘mild scratch’ from puppy months earlier

    Brit Yvonne Ford died of rabies last month

    Community
  • Scientists reveal what your favorite way to eat eggs really says about you
  • Expert gives detailed description on what the Devil and Hell would really look like and if they actually exist
  • People terrified after seeing what a child's skull looks like
  • What caused Antarctic scientist to 'assault and threaten to kill colleague' as they beg to be rescued