the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one
January 16, 2012 2:22 PM Subscribe
Perceptions of asymmetrical faces. Does someone you know have an asymmetrical face?
I'm interested in the perceptions of people who know someone with an asymmetrical face. In particular, if you know that person well. Could be your partner, relative, friend, workmate, whoever: someone you see regularly.
What I want to know is, does your perception of their character or personality change when you catch sight of them from different angles? In other words, when they look different, do they seem like a somewhat different person? Even though you know they are the same person, as it were. Or not?
The faces I have in mind would be noticeably asymmetrical. I'm aware that pretty well all faces are in fact asymmetrical, but most people's asymmetry is not normally picked up on. I know that actors (and maybe other media folk, and maybe non-media folk too) may have a "good" and a "bad" side for photographs, presumably also a function of asymmetry, but again the public might not consciously pick up on that. I'm interested in those cases where the asymmetry is distinct enough to be noticed at a first meeting, say.
I'm interested in the perceptions of people who know someone with an asymmetrical face. In particular, if you know that person well. Could be your partner, relative, friend, workmate, whoever: someone you see regularly.
What I want to know is, does your perception of their character or personality change when you catch sight of them from different angles? In other words, when they look different, do they seem like a somewhat different person? Even though you know they are the same person, as it were. Or not?
The faces I have in mind would be noticeably asymmetrical. I'm aware that pretty well all faces are in fact asymmetrical, but most people's asymmetry is not normally picked up on. I know that actors (and maybe other media folk, and maybe non-media folk too) may have a "good" and a "bad" side for photographs, presumably also a function of asymmetry, but again the public might not consciously pick up on that. I'm interested in those cases where the asymmetry is distinct enough to be noticed at a first meeting, say.
My grandmother had half her jaw and cheekbone on one side removed due to cancer, so she has a seriously asymmetrical face - one side is full and "normal" and the other side is sunken and "abnormal." Nevertheless, she just always looks like herself.
Strangers sometimes gawp at her and kids ask her what happened, but it's never a "two-face" sort of scenario - it's not like someone standing on one side of her thinks she's a pleasant old lady and someone on the other side thinks she's a crippled monster.
I think we just get used to people's faces, and recognize them through their face. If I look like hell one day, people may think I'm sick or tired, but they won't think I'm less smart or funny. Once you know someone, the look of their face is just a visible shorthand representing them. One side or another, my grandma just looks like "Grandma."
posted by arcticwoman at 2:44 PM on January 16, 2012
Strangers sometimes gawp at her and kids ask her what happened, but it's never a "two-face" sort of scenario - it's not like someone standing on one side of her thinks she's a pleasant old lady and someone on the other side thinks she's a crippled monster.
I think we just get used to people's faces, and recognize them through their face. If I look like hell one day, people may think I'm sick or tired, but they won't think I'm less smart or funny. Once you know someone, the look of their face is just a visible shorthand representing them. One side or another, my grandma just looks like "Grandma."
posted by arcticwoman at 2:44 PM on January 16, 2012
A good friend of mine had major surgery on her eye as a child, so that it isn't quite shaped like her other eye. It's the sort of thing you notice at a second glance, but once you do notice it, it's fairly obvious.
To be honest, beyond my initial curiosity about what had caused it, I almost immediately stopped noticing it. I didn't FORGET about it, just like I didn't 'forget' that she's blonde, or tall, or whatever- I just stopped registering it as anything other than 'one of the visual cues that makes up my friend H.' I can't say that it has ever made me think of her in a different way to see her from her left or right side.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:02 PM on January 16, 2012
To be honest, beyond my initial curiosity about what had caused it, I almost immediately stopped noticing it. I didn't FORGET about it, just like I didn't 'forget' that she's blonde, or tall, or whatever- I just stopped registering it as anything other than 'one of the visual cues that makes up my friend H.' I can't say that it has ever made me think of her in a different way to see her from her left or right side.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:02 PM on January 16, 2012
I had a friend who said she could spot who was a C-section baby based on how symmetrical their faces were. She used to just ask (in our college dorm) and usually she was always right. She herself was not a C-section and may have perceived some slight asymmetry in her own face that I never noticed.
posted by anniecat at 3:06 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by anniecat at 3:06 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
I do noticed eyelids. It seems that most people always have one eyelid that is somehow "puffier" than the other. That's all I notice and most of the time, it's not even obvious unless I go looking for it because I'm bored. It really doesn't change my perception of the person at all.
posted by anniecat at 3:08 PM on January 16, 2012
posted by anniecat at 3:08 PM on January 16, 2012
I'm not sure if perception would change with the angle, because when you look at a person in real life you're both always moving around and changing expressions ever so slightly. You don't really carry on a conversation with someone who's always at three-quarters view. So the mind picks up on all of those angles as part of the same face.
Looking at a reversed image of a familiar asymmetrical face can be unsettling, though. To provide a non-human example, my cat has facial markings that are not quite symmetrical, but close enough that I read them as symmetrical. On the rare occasions I see him in a mirror, though, it startles me every time, because it just looks so off.
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:23 PM on January 16, 2012
Looking at a reversed image of a familiar asymmetrical face can be unsettling, though. To provide a non-human example, my cat has facial markings that are not quite symmetrical, but close enough that I read them as symmetrical. On the rare occasions I see him in a mirror, though, it startles me every time, because it just looks so off.
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:23 PM on January 16, 2012
I haven't noticed any difference, although all the asymmetrical faced people I know are within "normal" ranges of asymmetry (as opposed to major injury/surgery/etc). Sometimes I'll notice it when initially meeting someone or soon after getting to know them, but then I don't really notice it at all. I think most of it is just the brain doing its job of filling in.
CAUTION: KINDA GROSS STORY IN THIS PARAGRAPH. I once saw someone who had been hit by a car, and both of his legs had been broken below the knee, so much so that they were bent. And when I first looked at him, all I could think was that his feet looked wrong because they were so long - at which point I realized my brain had parsed the bend in his broken legs as his ankles. But this shift from initial perception through "wait, something is wrong" and "I am sure I am parsing this correctly and it's still totally wrong" to "oh, wait, that's what I'm looking at" really made clear to me the level to which brain "fills in" for what we see.
IT'S SAFE TO READ AGAIN. I assume this is the same level of brain filtering that makes you not see a gorilla walking through a basketball game. And that causes motorists to be almost literally blind to motorcyclists and bicyclists. So once you learn to parse "this is what this person looks like", I don't think you actually *see* them most of the time. You see enough that your brain says "ah, it's this person. I know what they look like."
posted by rmd1023 at 4:38 PM on January 16, 2012
CAUTION: KINDA GROSS STORY IN THIS PARAGRAPH. I once saw someone who had been hit by a car, and both of his legs had been broken below the knee, so much so that they were bent. And when I first looked at him, all I could think was that his feet looked wrong because they were so long - at which point I realized my brain had parsed the bend in his broken legs as his ankles. But this shift from initial perception through "wait, something is wrong" and "I am sure I am parsing this correctly and it's still totally wrong" to "oh, wait, that's what I'm looking at" really made clear to me the level to which brain "fills in" for what we see.
IT'S SAFE TO READ AGAIN. I assume this is the same level of brain filtering that makes you not see a gorilla walking through a basketball game. And that causes motorists to be almost literally blind to motorcyclists and bicyclists. So once you learn to parse "this is what this person looks like", I don't think you actually *see* them most of the time. You see enough that your brain says "ah, it's this person. I know what they look like."
posted by rmd1023 at 4:38 PM on January 16, 2012
I once worked with an extraordinarily beautiful woman whose face was as asymmetrical as any Demoiselle d'Avignon. Though I almost never saw her asymmetry in casual conversation, she definitely had a way of using her look to command a room -- standing at the podium she looked like one of those pictures of Jesus where his gaze tracks you around the room, as painted by Picasso. It was mesmerizing.
posted by apparently at 5:56 PM on January 16, 2012
posted by apparently at 5:56 PM on January 16, 2012
Best answer: I definitely think of myself as having a good side and a bad side. It's very striking and obvious to me, because I'm as self obsessed as anyone and look in the mirror some. My bad side looks more tired or sad or old to me (one eye tilts down at the outer corner and the eyelid is heavier). If I am actually feeling tired or sad, the effect seems more pronounced.
My mother and my daughter have the same features. Basically everyone is always telling us we look like each other and often one will do something that reminds me of the other. The asymmetry in their faces isn't noticeable to me unless I'm looking for it. What I don't know, though--and I think this is actually your question--is whether I perceive either of them as more tired or sad if I'm sitting on their bad side. If it is happening, it's happening on an unconscious level.
posted by looli at 6:07 PM on January 16, 2012
My mother and my daughter have the same features. Basically everyone is always telling us we look like each other and often one will do something that reminds me of the other. The asymmetry in their faces isn't noticeable to me unless I'm looking for it. What I don't know, though--and I think this is actually your question--is whether I perceive either of them as more tired or sad if I'm sitting on their bad side. If it is happening, it's happening on an unconscious level.
posted by looli at 6:07 PM on January 16, 2012
I had a friend who said she could spot who was a C-section baby based on how symmetrical their faces were.
Can you explain which it was? C-section=asymmetrical, or vice-versa? Very curious.
posted by bearette at 7:46 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Can you explain which it was? C-section=asymmetrical, or vice-versa? Very curious.
posted by bearette at 7:46 PM on January 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
My SO's nose points a little off center, and sometimes I would notice he didn't quite shave his facial hair to look symmetrical face-on. But I still perceive him to be the same person.
(On that tangent note about c-section/facial symmetry, I've never thought about that! I would guess that C-section babies have more symmetrical faces since you're not squishing their head out of some small passage. Would more mothers go for a c-section if they knew it improved the chances of having greater facial symmetry for their child (and that whole facial symmetry-beauty thing)? I didn't find any results when I searched for that.)
posted by Seboshin at 12:41 AM on January 17, 2012
(On that tangent note about c-section/facial symmetry, I've never thought about that! I would guess that C-section babies have more symmetrical faces since you're not squishing their head out of some small passage. Would more mothers go for a c-section if they knew it improved the chances of having greater facial symmetry for their child (and that whole facial symmetry-beauty thing)? I didn't find any results when I searched for that.)
posted by Seboshin at 12:41 AM on January 17, 2012
Can you explain which it was? C-section=asymmetrical, or vice-versa? Very curious.
I'm not the original commenter, but I would guess C-section meant symmetrical, as being pushed through the vaginal canal would squish up a face and "force" asymmetry.
posted by lea724 at 7:18 AM on January 17, 2012
I'm not the original commenter, but I would guess C-section meant symmetrical, as being pushed through the vaginal canal would squish up a face and "force" asymmetry.
posted by lea724 at 7:18 AM on January 17, 2012
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posted by klangklangston at 2:24 PM on January 16, 2012