my stupid face

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Earthcircle

Well-known member
Please say it ain't so. People have long said that I am mentally retarded, and they obviously don't trust me either. Now maybe I know why. It's because of how I look. What's really troubling though is that the article suggests a correlation, presumably not absolute but statistical nonetheless, between appearance and reality.

The Facial Expression That Makes You Appear Smarter
 
mismeek

mismeek

Well-known member
That it really interesting. But i dont think youre stupid earth, do you possibly think that your just THINKING people think youre stupid?
 
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ImNotMyIllness

Well-known member
Those people saying that are obviously not intelligent themselves. From experience, you really can't deduce someone's IQ by their appearance. Your behavior though may give people the wrong impression.
 
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Earthcircle

Well-known member
Going back to the article, I wonder how tight the correlation is between appearance and reality. It can't be perfectly tight.
 
Angkorwat

Angkorwat

Well-known member
The whole article seems like it is setting up a clever joke for the last line. It is basically saying smile more and frown less. The facial structure thing seems ill-prepared for its research.
 
Pacific_Loner

Pacific_Loner

Pirate from the North Pole
^Yeah I was thinking the same, it doesn't look like a serious research at all.

I've known smart people who looks dumb and dumb people who looks smart. It's mostly a matter of charisma, attitude and physical characteristics, I think.

Some really smart people can look pretty dumb because they are daydreaming all the time, and some very dumb people can look smart because they are good speaker.

It also seems to me that there is dumb P.hDs and smart uneducated people.

Not to mention that I've crossed path with some horrible "smart people", and some amazing people of average IQ.

I also think that intelligence is a very relative notion.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think anyone is very well placed to judge anyone else's intelligence, so as long as you're smart enough for yourself, I don't think you should worry too much about the rest.
 
Livemylife

Livemylife

Well-known member
Earthcircle said:
Going back to the article, I wonder how tight the correlation is between appearance and reality. It can't be perfectly tight.
Click to expand...

Wait what? The article is about psychology. What people think has nothing to do with reality. People think all sorts of things. For example, psychologists have shown that humans associate good-looking people with good traits. Basically, they'll assume a pretty person is also good hearted, nice, smart, responsible, etc. And "ugly" people will be associated with bad traits. Studies have shown this several times. Of course a smart person would know that you cannot assume anything about a person from their "attractiveness." That is something they are born with and does not impact their character. Psychology simply explores human nature--not reality.
 
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jaim38

Well-known member
^I also think the article is interesting. I would also like to mention something I've noticed often: people like to associate "stupid" with the people that they hate/dislike. The word "stupid" is misused in so many situations. I've heard people label others as "stupid" with no evidence to back it up. It's just name calling at a rudimentary level. Teenagers do it all the time. Have you ever heard a teen girl saying something like, "I hate my parents. They're so stupid! They won't let me..."

I find it interesting that the article recommend smiling more to look smarter. It's pretty much the same thing. People who appear socially competent are the ones labeled as "smart" while others who are not so attuned to their social surroundings get labeled as "dumb", lights are on but nobody's home, etc. The people who are book-smart but not so street smart or socially saavy get mistaken for being "dumb".
 
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w*n*c*a*m

Well-known member
I have a stupid face. My eyes have this kind of 'absent minded' look plus my mouth seems to be open all the time. Argh!
 
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jaim38

Well-known member
w*n*c*a*m said:
I have a stupid face. My eyes have this kind of 'absent minded' look plus my mouth seems to be open all the time. Argh!
Click to expand...

Same here too, but recently I'm trying to be aware of my body language in public. I'm sure with practice, we can learn to project a confident, assertive face.
 
Livemylife

Livemylife

Well-known member
jaim38 said:
^I also think the article is interesting. I would also like to mention something I've noticed often: people like to associate "stupid" with the people that they hate/dislike. The word "stupid" is misused in so many situations. I've heard people label others as "stupid" with no evidence to back it up. It's just name calling at a rudimentary level. Teenagers do it all the time. Have you ever heard a teen girl saying something like, "I hate my parents. They're so stupid! They won't let me..."

I find it interesting that the article recommend smiling more to look smarter. It's pretty much the same thing. People who appear socially competent are the ones labeled as "smart" while others who are not so attuned to their social surroundings get labeled as "dumb", lights are on but nobody's home, etc. The people who are book-smart but not so street smart or socially saavy get mistaken for being "dumb".
Click to expand...
That is a really good deduction. I was thinking maybe the smiles made them more attractive, thus they were rated as smarter. But I like your theory more. Recently, I realized how important it is to fake smile and adjust my facial expression. This is very hard for me because I am not social. It takes a lot of effort to remind myself to smile around people when I am actually a wreck around them. I've only started fake smiling for about a week and boy is it hard. But yeah hopefully with practice it becomes automatic, although I can tell it will always be a challenge.
 
Luckylife

Luckylife

Well-known member
The article states people with up-turned mouths and eyebrows appear unintelligent and people with classic smile curvature and 'vexed' eyebrows are smart of appearance. This can all be done by the tilt of the head. Tilt head back - dumb, tilt head forward - bright. Its our old friend again... aggression, because when people are ready for a fight they will tilt their heads forward. Can't people see thru this sh**?
 
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