5 Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Someone: Backed By Research

Here are the things you can tell just by looking at someone

• As for personality, you can generally trust your gut when guessing extraversion, self-esteem, and religiosity. If you have a spontaneously taken photo of them you can add in agreeableness, emotional stability, openness, likability, and loneliness. Your predictions are probably more accurate when evaluating good-looking people.

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• Who is a good leader? The face will tell you. (True for women as well as men.) Or just look at the earlobes. Not sure which team has the better quarterback? Make your guess based on how handsome he is. You can probably tell whether a politician is a Democrat or Republican. Or even a non-politician. Or which politician is likely to win.

• We’re pretty good at telling who is a criminal. At an above chance level you’ll be able to tell which people are America’s Most Wanted and which are Nobel Peace Prize winners. If you think someone might be a psychopath, trust your gut. (And move quick, psychopaths are quite good at sizing you up too.) Tattoos will tell you who is most likely to commit more crime. Heck, your gut can be trusted to tell you if a neighborhood is unsafe. Still not sure if a man is dangerous? Ask a short guy. Is this useful in daily life? Yeah, because you’ll know who is more trustworthy or cooperative.

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• Want to know if someone is good at their job? Watch them for six seconds and your guess is more likely to be right than wrong. Sometimes a glance can tell you how smart someone is. Or whether they’re rich.

• Ladies, want to know if he’s attracted to you? It’s all in how long he looks at you. And guys might be able to look at you and tell how much you orgasm, whether you are currently fertile or whether you’re a lesbian.

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Want to be able to read people like Sherlock Holmes? Go here.

This piece originally appeared on Barking Up the Wrong Tree.

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