When meeting new people, first impressions can help us avoid making interpersonal mistakes, such as befriending, dating or employing the wrong people. When we say ‘wrong people’ that might include narcissists because they display many attractive qualities, at least initially. They appear friendly, self-confident and inviting in the first instance before becoming selfish, hostile and disagreeable. Narcissists are also egotistical, self-focused and vain. The ability to quickly identify and avoid narcissists would therefore be extremely valuable.
Previous studies have suggested that people can reliably identify a narcissist from a person’s face alone, but is this the whole face or more specific facial features? Miranda Giacomin and Nicholas Rule (2019) found that specific features did matter, most particularly eyebrows. Photos were taken of participants, who also self-completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Eyebrow thickness (or density) was the primary characteristic for participants’ correctly identifying whether a face belonged to a narcissist or not. The researchers tested this theory again by swapping the eyebrows of narcissists and non-narcissists between faces and found this had a significant effect on participants’ perceptions.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
