In 1985, the Getty Museum in California bought a rare sixth century B.C. Greek Kouros for $9.5 million. But before the purchase, the museum brought in scientists to examine the 1,100-pound statue to make sure it was authentic.
The scientists used scientific and technical analysis to examine the marble statue. Their conclusion was that the statue was indeed authentic.
But some art scholars also examined the work using their eyes and gut instincts. Their conclusion was that the statue was a forgery from the 20th century.
It turned out that judging the statue on its face value was correct. The statue is widely considered to be a fake.
Portrait Face Value
Judging someone on face value is what all of us do every day.
There is a growing amount of evidence that people form impressions about other people’s underlying traits (e.g., their competence, trustworthiness, and even political ideology) from their facial features alone.
Whether you know it or not, people make a judgement about your personality and character in as little as 40 milliseconds of seeing your face. That’s shorter than a blink of an eye.
A 1974 University of Toronto study (link to PDF) looked at the 1972 Canadian federal election results and found that attractive candidates averaged three times more votes than their unattractive counterparts. The level of attractiveness was based solely on candidates’ published business headshots.
This Canadian study found that a person who is perceived to be facially attractive is better liked and believed to have a better personality. People often equate an attractive face with competence.
A more recent study in the USA also looked at political candidate headshots:
He asked participants to look at photos of US politicians running for Congress and Senate for just one second and then to judge how “competent” they looked ( . . . ) the participants’ snap judgements predicted who would win a seat with nearly 70% accuracy.
The science behind our facial recognition abilities and the importance of a good portrait have been proven.
Considerable evidence from behavioural, neuropsychological and neurophysiological investigations supports the hypothesis that humans have specialized cognitive and neural mechanisms dedicated to the perception of faces.
No other mammal, bird, or reptile that we know of has as much variance in facial features as do humans. ( . . . ) humans vary in our facial structure more than we do in any other physical feature.
( . . . )
The impressive array of facial expressions and the incredible diversity of facial shapes and structures both highlight an important feature of human beings: we have a spectacular inborn ability to recognize patterns. This skill in pattern recognition is manifest in many ways, but perhaps chief among them, our ability to recognize faces and facial expressions.
( . . . )
More than any other species, humans look at each other’s faces, especially when we are in communication.
Warmth and Competence
When we look at a business portrait, we’re looking for two specific qualities: warmth and competence.
Consumers are willing to give businesses that project warmth a chance to earn their business, but they must also show competence.
Warm people “are seen as good-natured, trustworthy, tolerant, friendly, and sincere” and competent people “are characterized as capable, skillful, intelligent, and confident.”
Business Portrait not just a Headshot
A good business portrait can’t guarantee business success and profit but it can help make the right first impression. A portrait isn’t about changing your appearance but rather it’s about conveying a sense of warmth and competence.
Whereas a cheap headshot is only about showing your face, a proper business portrait is about showing your best qualities. This is done through a combination of pose, body language, lighting and camera angle and it’s all done relative to your business image.
People who view your business portrait use only their eyes and gut instinct. In only a fraction of a second, they will decide if you’re real or fake.
Take a look at your current business portrait, or the lack thereof. What is it saying about you and your business?
And in case you were wondering:
Awesome article. There is something to think about.