We can’t all be as attractive as these celebrities – but it turns out that’s a good thing if you’re interested in people trusting you.
New research in psychology from a collaboration between Princeton and Rabdoud University in the Netherlands suggests that people are more likely to trust a more “average” face than an attractive one.
The researchers took 92 female faces and averaged them to create a “typical” face, then created various faces on either side by weighting less and more attractive faces. The participants (all female) were then asked to rate the faces on a 9-point scale of attractiveness and trustworthiness.
The results revealed that the closer a face was to the average, the more trustworthy it was considered to be. This also implies we tend to not trust less attractive people.
It seems that when it comes to trusting people, we’re all a lot like Goldylocks…
If we’re going trust you, you can’t be too pretty and you can’t be too plain – we’re looking for just right.
#NOTABLE
Want more updates on the most Notable things happening so you know before your colleagues do? Get our exclusive newsletter here and follow us on Twitter for all the latest.