The face of deceit

The face of deceit
by Ari Siletz
18-Aug-2010
 

Why of all the US presidents is Abraham Lincoln known as"Honest Abe" when he was as crafty as any politician?  A study done by Michael Stirrat of the University of St Andrews, School of Psychology says people tend to trust narrow faces more than they trust wide faces. He gave folks some money and then showed them a computer generated face with a neutral expression. "You can take your money and walk away," he told his subjects,  "or you can give it to this guy in the computer who says he can double your money for you." Or something like that. The subjects were more likely to trust their money to narrower faced images than to wider faced images. In fact the images were of exactly the same face but morphed to look wider or narrower.The effect was found to be stronger in women than in men.

I didn't give this experiment much thought until a few months later when a very well educated and cultured cousin asked me to look at a picture of Ahmadinejad and tell him what I saw in the face. I said "deceitful." He said "honest." Later I wondered why is it then that the Devil is almost always depicted as a narrow faced character. My conjecture is the following: the devil is mostly described as "deceitful," and almost never as "untrustworthy." Deceit means betraying a trust. The Devil's narrow face says you  trust him at first, are seduced by him, and he ends up screwing you.

Note: Above image shows two narrow faced politicians and two wide faced politicians.

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Mardom Mazloom

BoycottYS, have you a big fat hairy face like Hassan Nassrollah?

by Mardom Mazloom on

چو ایران نباشد، تن من مباد


BoycottIraniandotcom

I encourage hamvatans to boycott this AIPAC dominated website

by BoycottIraniandotcom on

As you can see from the articles, this purportedly Iranian site's content is
anti Iranian and comes largely from an Israeli/AIPAC perspective, which is
offensive to the vast majority of Iranians. Please do not engage with this site
except to warn other Iranians.

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Ari Siletz

Divaneh, Lincoln's face and women's vote

by Ari Siletz on

Lincoln was honest and clean shaven until his presidential campaign. At that time he got a letter from an 11 year old girl that said "if I was a man" and you had "whiskers" I would vote for you and wives would press their husbands to vote for you so you would become president (no women's vote yet). Lincoln wrote back that he wasn't sure how people would interpret it but soon afterward he started growing "whiskers." Here's the story --which is not a myth.

Those are "whiskers," Divaneh and the look says, "I'm an honest cat." Ever see an honest cat with a stache?


divaneh

I don't trust

by divaneh on

any man who shaves his tash and then can't be bothered to shave the rest. That type of man always does things in half, being wide, narrow, round or triangled face.


Midwesty

I haven't heard stories but I know...

by Midwesty on

His origin and demographic. He comes from a humble and pragmatic background. During his debate with mousavi I used to hold my ears or change the channel in order to avoid any of his political tricks ( so I thought that back then). I was always skeptical about him but each and everytime he proved me wrong.


Anonymouse

The "dumbing down" strategy doesn't always win

by Anonymouse on

Ari jaan the best example of using your education and intellect to impress your audience is Obama.  Is his face wide or narrow?! I can't tell!

He ignored the dumb Palin (narrow face) who read a lot of imaginary newspapers and thought being able to see Russia was her best foreign policy asset among other things.  Of course at the heel of a dumb president, American people were just tired of all the dumbness.  Now they're going back again!

Obama survived all that was thrown at him including attacks of "elitism".  Mousavi didn't use his intellect properly.  He became emotional and engaged in endless tit for tat attacks whereas Rezai showed no emotions and stuck it to Ahmadi where it hurts which was citing his own economic data.

Ahmadi is the face of the devil and knew of the widespread cheating so that added to his arrogance and made it easier for him to engage in tit for tat tactics.  BTW he is eligible to run for presidency again in 2017, like Rafsanjani ran in 2005.

Everything is sacred


Ari Siletz

Thanks HG

by Ari Siletz on

Agree with "too long and thin." Maybe that's why the Devil is portrayed this way. By the way Peter Cook as the Devil in Bedazzled. Great modern casting!

Midwesty, have you heard any stories (there must be bios by now) about Ahmadinejad's early life that portray him as being above average in honesty?


Ari Siletz

Midwesty, Ahamadi's edge

by Ari Siletz on

you are right, we can't reasonably fault a politician for taking advantage of his/her natural assets. We fault Ahmadinejad for his policies and simply observe the assets he has at his disposal to gain some Iranians' support despite these harmful policies. Among Ahmadinejad's assets: he comes across as khaaki. In the presidential debates he clobbered Mousavi just by sitting there looking like a serious version of Samad.


hamsade ghadimi

ari

by hamsade ghadimi on

i was under the impression that abe's nickname preceded his involvement in politics.  here are couple of links: //www.inspirationalstories.com/1/108.html

//www.myhero.com/myhero/go/specialevents/hero.asp?hero=Lincoln08_honestabe&eid=1

i do agree though with the quote that you provided.

i also think that if the face is too thin and long, then it is not trusted.  bah humbug!

 


Ari Siletz

HG

by Ari Siletz on

I was under the impression that American author Horatio Alger mythologized Lincoln (died 1865) in one of his series of formula rags to riches tales almost 20 years after Lincoln's death.

 

Here's economist/historian Thomas DiLorenzos view of Lincoln stories: 

 

"The Lincoln myth has deified not only Lincoln but the American
presidency in general. The poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren once
wrote that the war gave the North a "treasury of virtue" because of all
the myths that were fabricated after the war. In war, the victors
always write the history. This false virtue has been used ever since to
portray American foreign policy as benevolent, selfless, and saintly.
Thus, there are many people with careers, income and wealth dependent
upon the propping up of the American foreign policy establishment with
the myth of "American exceptionalism." Anything "we" do is right and
just, simply because it is "we" who are doing it."


Midwesty

Ari,

by Midwesty on

Can we hold "being aware of" against him, since he spends more time being aware of anything else rather than himself.

You know he's been in very remote villages in Iran that possibly no officials has ever been.

You know his "Safarhaye Ostani" are subjects of various jokes. Nevertheless he is the one who invented the concept of 4-year campaigning.

I definitely agree that he is aware but not sure about the proportion of him to others.


Ari Siletz

Anonymouse, Shirin Ebadi

by Ari Siletz on

Shirin Ebadi isn't covered by the experiment as women's faces were not tested (maybe because the researcher worried it would blow his testostrone theory). MLK and NM elicit trust because reading their initials backwards gives a proper alphabetical sequence. With JJ you can't tell if you're going forwards or backwards. Suspicious!


hamsade ghadimi

the experiment seems to

by hamsade ghadimi on

the experiment seems to test the hypothesis of "first impression."  anonymouse offered examples of trusted "wide" faces and one can surmise that through exposure to the person or their thoughts, shape of face does not matter much.  why honest abe?  he was known to be an honest person through many stories before he entered politics.  hence, abe's reputation and nickname prior to politics stuck.

midwesty, lesson of the day --> there's no trick to be known as honest and trustworthy in the long run.


Anonymouse

MLK, Shirin Ebadi, Nelson Mandela, JJJ :-) all have wide faces!

by Anonymouse on

Everything is sacred


Ari Siletz

Midwesty, better diet

by Ari Siletz on

I would never discourage eating more minduflly and working harder. However, before doing the research Dr. Stirrat had predicted the phenomenon based on what face width says about testostrone levels and its correlation with male aggressiveness. At an instinctive level wider faces suggest "bully,' and narrower faces suggest "accommodating. " Ahmadinejad seems intuitively aware of this effect. Note for example his  signature wounded shrug and statements like "my neck is narrower than a hair when it comes to the law."


Midwesty

Ari,

by Midwesty on

Your generalization gives me no choice but to follow. So maybe people with a narrow face are tend to follow a better diet or work harder in which both are good signs.


Mardom Mazloom

At each time I look at one of A.N.'s image

by Mardom Mazloom on

the first thing which comes to my mind is "what a ugly monkey he is"!

Na bishooki ... Now imagine the result of the experience of me, seeing A.N. asking for my money in a computer!


Red Wine

...

by Red Wine on

Ahmadinejad,Mousavi,Khamenei,Shah and his son are my favorite faces to make photo-toon ...

Thank you Ari jan .