The Science Behind A Creepy Face

[00:00:00]Imagine you're a girl and this creep approaches you. But, let's change him a bit. Not so creepy anymore, huh? For the last week, I've researched all these specific traits and behaviors that make up a creepy face just to make sure you never give off that vibe. Apparently, all the traits fit in one of the next three categories. Number one, ambiguity.

[00:00:20]In 2017, this man was arrested for exposing himself at a public pool. In just a few short days, social media went crazy roasting his face. But, why does he look so bizarre in the first place?

[00:00:32]Well, he has strong masculine jawline, yet small feminine lips. Big masculine nose, but large feminine eyes. Mature balding hairline coupled with youthful clear skin. He looks both masculine and feminine, both old and young all at the same time. Now, all these cues combined make his face look ambiguous. And from an evolutionary standpoint, our brains evolved to see ambiguous faces as dangerous, aka creepy. To overcome this ambiguity, we need to go all in on his masculine features to overcome the feminine and youthful traits. A full beard and thicker eyebrows are clear biological signs of masculinity, but so is the balding head. Yet, in his case, the skin is so smooth that it's actually perceived as feminine and youthful. A buzz cut will help him a lot. But, while the beard and eyebrows could be fixed with minoxidil and a derma roller, his hair would indeed necessitate a transplant. Now, this is one of those rare cases where wrinkles, which usually reduce attractiveness, actually make him look more attractive. Why? Because they make him look more mature and masculine.

[00:01:42]Now, this guy's face was creepy because it sends too many cues. Yet, you can also look creepy if your face sends too little cues, aka it lacks contrast. You can see here by simply adding some contrast, his attractiveness skyrockets.

[00:01:57]Now, to elevate your looks, you must be familiar with stuff like neoteny, proportions, sexual dimorphism, symmetry, contrast, and all the other scientific factors that make or break a face's attractiveness. As a gift for you guys, I'll help the first 20 people that contact me to elevate their looks for free. All you have to do is send me some pictures with you at [email protected], and I'll give you a picture with your potential look coupled with a step-by-step guide on how to achieve it.

[00:02:24]Now, the good news is that most of us look better than this guy. The bad news is that we can still send ambiguity cues even with a normal face. Let's take a look at this scene from the movie Smile.

[00:02:35]Obviously creepy, but why? Since infancy, we're able to judge if a face is trustworthy or not based on only its expressiveness. Now, in 1978, Dr. Paul Ekman, the man who studies are used by Disney Pixar to make sure their characters aren't creepy, discovered that each natural expression is made up of three parts. The onset, in our case, a genuine smile, takes about half a second to fully deploy, not multiple seconds. The apex, a normal expression hits its peak and naturally begins to decay. It doesn't stay the same for several moments. And the offset, a regular smile fades smoothly. A fake smile fades abruptly. Now, what does this have to do with looking creepy?

[00:03:18]Sometimes when we're nervous, we hide our nervousness by putting up a long-lasting smile or other positive facial expressions. The problem? These expressions don't seem natural. And when they don't seem natural, they seem creepy. So, what can you do? Well, instead of trying to hide your emotions, you can simply admit that you're a little nervous. This actually reduces your amygdala's activity, aka the brain's anxiety center, and makes you seem more socially chiseled. Number two, unhealthiness. In In Warner Bros. released a sweet Christmas movie called Polar Express. The problem?

[00:03:55]It's one of the creepiest animated movies of all time. Here's the deal. As most of you might know, human skin has a natural biological glow. In Polar Express, the characters looked mostly human, but they didn't have that natural glow. This made us subconsciously perceive them as dead moving corpses. In the medical world, this is known as pallor mortis. But, how does it affect us? Well, you can also lose a big part of your natural glow if you have very pale or very dry skin. If you are in one of these situations, you should try tanning and using some moisturizer. Now, besides the case with Polar Express, we also encounter pale skin as a big indicator of creepiness in the famous 2016 study on the nature of creepiness.

[00:04:41]In this study, the other facial traits described were greasy and unkempt hair, bags under the eyes, bulging eyes, facial hair, being obese, and being extremely thin. I know that being obese or extremely thin are not exactly facial traits, but they heavily affect the aspect of your face. Also, having facial hair is not always creepy unless it's unkempt and associated with other creepy traits. Studies show that it can actually help you increase your attractiveness. Number three, aggression. The Silence of the Lambs is one of the creepiest movies of all time.

[00:05:15]Why? If you pay attention, you'll see that the villain tends to never blink.

[00:05:20]In the animal kingdom, predators blink less when they're hunting because they don't want to lose track of the prey.

[00:05:25]Now, how does this affect you? Well, when you're talking to a girl you like, you do tend to overthink. And according to the study called Blinking and Thinking, when you overthink, you tend to have a much lower blink rate, which can make you look creepier. The solution? Try to focus more on her and the conversation topic rather than focusing on how you're being perceived.

[00:05:45]But, if I show you these pictures, you'll think that they look creepy regardless of their blink rate, don't you? These are called Sanpaku eyes.

[00:05:53]Normally, our sclera, aka the white part of our eyes, should be mostly visible on the right and left parts of our eyeballs. We naturally expose the rest when we see a threat or when we are the threat. This is considered bizarre, especially if it's paired with other creepy traits. But, what can you do if you have these types of eyes? Well, if you look at celebrities like Ryan Gosling, Henry Cavill, or Chris Hemsworth, you'll see that they often slightly squint their eyes in photos to look more confident and attractive. You can steal their trick to look better in photos. But, what about real-life interactions? Well, if you want to learn how to flirt as an ugly guy, I know the perfect video for you.