How to master facial expression and control perception

“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.”

― Aldous Huxley

Assessing intelligence at first sight

Loads of advice in the area of impression management and coaching focuses on appearance, thus clothes. For good reason. They’re an easy thing to change. Clothes are considered the most visible parts of our appearance. Our facial expression is constantly changing while our clothes, once we get them on, aren’t, give or take some wrinkling and wind movement.

But other factors bear thinking on too, if we want to be perceived as intelligent and trustworthy and one of them is our facial expression. The ability to accurately assess the intelligence of another person finds it‘s place in everyday social interaction because human interactions are heavily based on facial cues.

It means that people who look at you have the powerful subconscious belief that they already know how intelligent you are.

They’re probably not thinking it consciously, but experience has taught them that faces are a good indicator of intelligence, and their brain is using yours to make a judgment as soon as you’re spotted.

That means, your default and emotional expressions are shaping people‘s perceptions of you. In conclusion, your facial expression is a big factor that affects your style and how you are perceived by others.

The bad thing: Mastering your face is harder than mastering your clothes. The good thing: You can train it! And the training will pay off because the more control you have over your facial expression, the more control you’ll have over conversations and interactions, too. Remember that facial cues are often more important than the actual words you say ( which is a scary and sometimes frustrating thought, I admit).

The intelligent face

Faces that are perceived as highly intelligent are rather prolonged with a broader distance between the eyes, a larger nose, a slight upturn to the corners of the mouth, and a sharper, pointing, less rounded chin. By contrast, the perception of lower intelligence is associated with broader, more rounded faces with eyes closer to each other, a shorter nose, declining corners of the mouth, and a rounded and massive chin.

Mmmh, that makes it sound a little hopeless on the surface. If facial features really are the judge of intelligence you can’t look any “smarter” than your face, can you? Well, turns out you can. Use the following techniques to keep your face looking savvy, alert, and attractive. Let’s face them!

Open your eyes and raise your brows. Don’t exaggerate to an extreme, but avoid squinting or furrowing your brows. You want that part of your face to look open and expansive. This is also a good argument for sunglasses in bright light. A blank, visored face is better than a bunched-up, squinty one.

Relax your jaw. If you’re clenching your teeth, it makes your face shorter and wider. It’s also hard on your teeth. Keep the jaw comfortably relaxed when you’re not speaking, and elongate your vowel sounds a bit to stretch it out when you talk.

Keep your chin up. Tilting your head slightly back makes your chin and jaw appear narrower, which elongates the face overall. Hunching forward, in contrast, makes your face and body appear squat.

These may seem like very minor cues, but most of how we read faces comes from exactly that: Minor, subconscious cues of angle and position. If you can train yourself to keep your face in a relaxed, open, elongated attitude, you’ll end up looking much more intelligent and attractive to most people. And last but not least…

Smile, Smile, Smile

Smiles are associated with positive character, trustworthiness, and intelligence. Angry or frowning faces, in contrast, are seen as less trustworthy and less intelligent.

That shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise. We all know that smiles are more attractive than frowns, but it’s worth remembering that the effect is consistent enough for statistical relevance in scientific studies! Not every occasion is right for a big, tooth-bearing smile, but if you can train your default expression into a small, close-lipped smile it will improve your overall perception in everyday interactions significantly.

Relax and remember: Constant dripping wears the stone

The most important thing is to train it into subconscious habit. Forced smiles look a little stiff and awkward. You want yours to just be what your face does when you’re not thinking about it at all. Besides, you are intelligent, nice and trustworthy already. You only do this to help others make the right judgement instantly, of course.

Unfortunately, for those of us that aren’t naturally merry, that can require a few weeks of more forced smiles but hang in there. You’ll get there eventually, and the results are well worth the effort. And now, you trustworthy, nice and clever smarty: Go out there, have fun and look your best.