According to a University of Toronto study, your face shows your Social Standing. The study started with a lot of willing participants. UT PhD Candidate Thora Bjornsditter explains the methodology.
“My co-author, psychology professor Nicholas O. Rule, and I had undergraduate students of various ethnicities look at gray-scale face-only photographs of 80 white males and 80 white females – also undergraduates. . None showed any tattoos or piercings. Half of the photos were of people who made over $150,000 a year, which they designated as upper class, and the other half were people who made under $35,000, or working class.”
The results were fascinating. Bjornsditter says, “They correctly separated the rich from the poor much more often than by random chance.” How did this happen. “It has been proven from previous studies that people from a higher income tend to have a sense of well-being and that can be reflected in people’s faces.”
What does this mean to you? We pick up those reflections subconsciously and they can influence our impressions of others. Another study was held with the same photos with the question asked of the participants, “Which photos represent someone whom you would hire?” Again, overwhelmingly the faces of the “rich” were chosen.
Bjornsditter’s advice to you: “A confident smile is a good start for giving off a sense of well being.” Smile away!!!