Brown eyes appear more trustworthy than blue: People judge men's trustworthiness based on face shape, eye color

Jan. 9, 2013 ? People view brown-eyed faces as more trustworthy than those with blue eyes, except if the blue eyes belong to a broad-faced man, according to research published Jan. 9 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Karel Kleisner and colleagues from Charles University in the Czech Republic.

The study's results attempt to answer a larger question: What makes us think a person's face looks trustworthy? The authors asked study participants to rate male and female faces for trustworthiness based on two features: eye color and face shape. A significant number of participants found brown-eyed faces more trustworthy than blue-eyed, whether the faces were male or female. More rounded male faces, with bigger mouths and larger chins, were perceived as more trustworthy than narrow ones, but the shape of a female face did not have much effect on how trustworthy it appeared to the respondents.

To test which of the two features were more important, the researchers tried a third test, presenting participants with photographs of male faces that were identical except for one difference: eye color. Here, they found that both eye colors were considered equally trustworthy. According to the study, "We concluded that although the brown-eyed faces were perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones, it was not brown eye color per se that caused the stronger perception of trustworthiness but rather the facial features associated with brown eyes."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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Journal Reference:

1. Karel Kleisner, Lenka Priplatova, Peter Frost, Jaroslav Flegr. Trustworthy-Looking Face Meets Brown Eyes. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e53285 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053285

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/JjkAVLFe8Lw/130109185850.htm

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