New York Times Reports: What Your Eyes Say About Your Mood
Do you ever hear someone say, “You look tired,” even when you’re not? A recent article in the New York Times explores that idea, and how your eyes might give away more about your mood than you thought. According to the article, researchers asked 20 participants to identify the mood of a woman based only on pictures of her eyes and brow.
The pictures, all of the same woman, were digitally altered slightly to create 16 different versions in order to mimic the results of different plastic surgery procedures. The woman’s face was noted as looking angry or tired by the participants when her eyelids appeared smoothed. According to the findings in the article, her eyebrows also played a factor:
Eyebrows made a big difference in how people perceived the mood of the woman in the picture. When the brows were lowered or slanted toward the nose, or when forehead wrinkles were added, ratings of anger and disgust increased.
The article explores the idea that people use plastic surgery procedures not only for rejuvenative reasons, but to alter their expression as well. These costly procedures might be good ways to permanently change the features on your face so others will perceive you differently, but is the risk worth it? Some commenters on the New York Times site believe not:
It must be great unhappiness that drives someone to so ruin their appearance for vanity’s sake; unfortunately for them, as the study suggests, that unhappiness shows. – Posted by Tyler
If you’re worried about what your eyes are telling others about your mood, plastic surgery might not be the solution. For more information, read the full New York Times article — you can also find the photos used in the study here.
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