Physiognomy: Difference between revisions

*Certain neurodevelopmental conditions and mental illnesses can be associated with particular fixed facial expressions. For example, very intense people might bite their lips, crunch their teeth, chew their nails, and engage in other nervous tics. Autistics are often described as having a blank, unexpressive face. This is also found in schizophrenia.<ref>https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/flat-affect</ref> Some mental conditions result in a tilted mouth. Socially excluded individuals may make odd facial expressions or engage in tics as nobody is there to correct their behavior, or such behavior may be induced by the greater stress such people often face. Alternatively, these expressions are revealing the personality traits and inner affect of such people in a way they cannot disguise without conscious control. People are, in fact, able to infer other's mental conditions above chance level based on photos.<ref>https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656618300394</ref> Autists are recognized as less approachable and attractive within seconds.<ref>https://incels.wiki/w/Scientific_Blackpill#Autists_are_judged_as_awkward.2C_less_physically_attractive_and_less_approachable_within_seconds</ref> More broadly, mental illness may be associated with the use of less positive and more negative facial expressions.<ref>https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0920996421005107</ref> When individuals assess others for the personality trait of neuroticism, which is generally associated with mental illness, they often perceive negative emotions in the facial expressions of those being evaluated.<ref>https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jopy.12262</ref> Neurotic people are also less emotionally expressive, while extraverts are more expressive.<ref>https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1022117500440</ref> Negative facial emotions, particularly anger, are generally judged as less favorable.<ref>https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/soco.2011.29.4.415</ref> This would promote less favorable evaluations of people with negative resting expressions. Thus, mental illness is broadly associated with affective facial traits that promote perceptions of weirdness and less socially desirable personality traits in those these people interact with, particularly in social interactions with strangers. These negative perceptions would be excepted to promote more less rewarding social interactions. In some cases, it would be expected that consistent patterns of automatic social aversion directed towards such people would serve to compound their feelings of social rejection, thus worsening their mental health in a vicious cycle.