Which party do you want to win? It depends on the size of your chin

‘Can be a self-fulfilling prophecy effect’

SOME people famously wear their heart on their sleeve. But is it possible to deduce someone’s political leanings by looking at their face? Scientists say yes.

Researchers suggest the size of your chin could predict how you will vote in the upcoming nationwide elections.

They found that AI software could guess with ‘significant accuracy’ an individual’s political orientation from just a photograph of their face.

The technology was also able to accurately predict the political affiliation of 1,000 UK politicians from similar images.

Researchers, from Stanford University in the US, found people who were more liberal in their views had smaller lower faces – and chins. Those who tended to vote conservative had larger lower faces and squarer jaws.

Photographs of the 600 volunteers were ‘neutral’, which means individuals all wore black T-shirts, removed any make-up or facial hair, and had their hair pinned back from their faces so the predictions could be made without any reference to personal style or other preferences which could have offered clues.

The predictions were accurate regardless of age, gender, race and location. ‘A single image of a neutral face reveals political orientation as accurately as job interviews reveal job success or alcohol drives aggressiveness,’ the researchers said.

They added their results had ‘critical implications for privacy, and the regulation of facial recognition technology’ and urged policymakers to recognise the ‘potential risks’. The study suggests faces, and how they are perceived by others, can shape behaviour and psychological traits.

Describing it as a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy effect’, the researchers suggest people with larger jaws are often perceived as ‘more socially dominant, a trait associated with political conservatism’, and that, over time, it might lead them to actually become that way and to vote on the political Right. They also suggest that life experiences equally have a subtle effect on the face. ‘Liberals, for example, tend to smile more intensely and genuinely – which, over time, leaves traces in wrinkle patterns,’ the study, published in the journal American Psychologist, said.

‘Conservatives tend to be more self-disciplined and are thus healthier, consume less alcohol and tobacco, and have a better diet, altering their facial fat distribution and skin health.’