We’ve all been there. We take selfie after selfie until we find one we kind of like and keep that one, meanwhile discarding the rest. What we are looking for is our good side to our face. But what determines our “good side”? And why is it more attractive than the other side?
Wake Forest University psychology professor Dr. James Schirillo and his co-author, Kelsey Blackburn did an experiment that tested just that. They observed 27 male and female college students on photos of 10 males and 10 females, each photo mirrored. The researchers observed the pupils of the participant’s eyes because when you look at something pleasant, they dilate. Concluding that when the students looked at the left side of the face, their pupils were larger than when they looked at the right side. Meaning that the left side is the more attractive side of the face.
Unfortunately I could not find any more studies on this topic, which could be due to the file drawer problem. If I were to do an experiment on this, I would start out by having 15 different pictures of people (famous and not famous) from their left side and their right. I would then hold up the two different pictures side by side for 5 seconds and the participants would have to decide which face was more attractive at first glance. My null hypothesis would be that each side of the face is as equally attractive. This experiment however would have a couple of confounding variables such as if the famous person was liked by the participants, what the person was wearing, how good the vision is by the participant and how close the picture is to the person.
Girl outdoors holding two mirrors
Hi Anastasia!
It is very true that after taking pictures, we evaluate all of them to find which one is the best in our opinion. You only found one experiment which is not enough to conclude anything. Which side of the face people believe is better depends mostly on the individual himself. I think it is a matter of opinion and what we view to be better looking. The experiment that you suggested may work but again there are many confounding variables as you said that may come in to play so it is very hard to make any conclusion.
This is great! I am definitely guilty of believing that I have a “good side” when it comes to pictures. Anyway, I thought it was interesting how, even though you could not find enough evidence to come to a conclusion, you basically made up your own experiment by explaining a method you would follow, stating a null hypothesis, and listing confounding variables that might come into play. I thought that was very cool, and outside of the box! Did you know that some people think that your, “good side” is a myth?? If you want to read more about it, you can at the following link!
http://www.chicagonow.com/the-photo-ninja-blog/2010/03/fact-vs-myth-do-people-really-have-a-good-side-when-being-photographed/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi1oaM_PWII
Also, heres an interesting Youtube video I found that shows pictures of a regular face then what the person would look like if they had 2 right sides or 2 left sides!
I found this post very interesting because I always tend to take pictures on my right side! But, turns out there is a reason behind why the left side is said to be better looking. Dr. Schirillo, a psychology professor, “explained there’s actually a physiological reason behind it all. “The left side of your face is governed by the right hemisphere of your brain, which is the side that is mainly responsible for the expression of emotions,” he said. “So when someone is smiling and happy, it shows more on his/her left side.”” Meanwhile, the right side of your face is controlled by the left side of the brain which shows logic.
I think this is a very interesting topic and I think theres a lot more to explore!
Although there are not many studies on what constitutes for people the “good side” of their face, there are studies and experiments that go into what makes people more attractive to us than to other people. The conclusion was that the more symmetrical a person’s face, the more attractive they seem. So it comes as no surprise to me that there is something about the left side of a person’s face that makes us think it looks more attractive than the right side. I would love to see another experiment testing why that is.