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If someone's ever told you you look tired, or sad or angry, but in reality you weren't any of those things, don't fret, it's probably not you, it's your face.
According to a study in the medical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery facial features like eyebrow shape, eyelids and wrinkles affect facial expressions, sometimes in unintended ways.
For the study researchers took a photograph and ditigally altered it in ways that mimic common plastic surgery procedures. Subjects were then asked to rate on a scale of 0 to 5 various emotions for each picture including, anger, tiredness, happiness, surprise, sadness, disgust and fear.
The pictures that mimicked eyelid surgery or brow lifts generated the worst scores, with study participants rating those faces as looking angry or tired.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, more than 241,000 eyelid surgeries, 43,000 forehead lifts and 118,400 face-lifts were performed in 2007. But the study shows that people contemplating eye surgery should talk to their doctor about how a procedure might affect their facial expressions. And some people might want to think twice about eliminating some sets of wrinkles. One digitally-altered picture added crows' feet — tiny wrinkles around the eyes — and received high ratings for "happiness.''
"The eyes and their related structures nonverbally communicate a wide range of expressions that are universal to all people," Dr. Persing said. "Therefore facial expression should be a factor in how patients and their plastic surgeons select various rejuvenation procedures. As our findings show, even the slightest modification can elicit profound changes in how others perceive us."
To see the photos used in the study, click here.
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