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What mikes, your face noticeable or attractive in a
crowd of 22JDQ0 students?
This question has been studied informally for
seven years by Martin Peterson, associate professor of
anthropology, who uses some of this information in
teaching his Introduction to Anthropology class.
For instance, some university professors grow
beards to make their heads look bigger, said Peterson,
who himself sports a beard.
Person's reactions of a car's resemblance to a face
sold cars and controlled their design in the 1950s and
60s, Peterson said. This theory was developed by
Richard Coss, an architect and psychologist, at the
University of California at Berkeley. Especially im
portant to this theory were reactions to eyes, he said.
"7e can be caught by eyes and never get away
from them, Peterson said.
One thing students do to make their face more at
tractive is to make their eyes look bir, Peterson
said. He said this concept of wide eyes complements a
theory by Konrad Lorenz, the German ethobgist
who won a Nobel Prize for his work.
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Lorenz said that people react favorably to baby
characteristics, Peterson said, and wide eyes is a baby
characteristic.
Sometimes when this attracts men to women, it
raises a protective instinct in them, Peterson said, just
like the instinct to protect a baby.
Women try to make their eyes look bigger through
the use of eye makeup or by shaping or coloring their
eyebrows, he said.
"There is every reason to believe that eye makeup
is important to people's reactions," he said.
Hair that is styled doss to the face and the eyes
also makes the eyes look bigger, Peterson said, be
cause it cuts down on the shape of the face and the
size of the eyes in proportion to it.
Men can make their eyes look bigger through hair
styling too, or with sideburns, he added.
lips also are important to the attractiveness of a
face, Peterson sail.
Faces grow on yon .
"Ve- make decisions on how we're going to hold
our lips," he said, adding that people learn how to
smile and whether to show teeth when they smile.
Peterson said the face grows 10 per cent during its
lifetime, and people can reconriruct their faces.
This accounts for adopted children that look like
their parents, and married couples that resemble one
another, he said.
However, faces are not the only things that attract
people's attention. Remember your mother telling "
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you to sit up straight and not to sbuch?
From posture, Peterson said, an observer gets a
certain perception of a person, and that person's per
ception of himself. -
Posture can indicate they way the body feels, or
the way the body feels can be controlled by posture,
he said. - . '
Enhancing chsrscter&ks
One gets a "sensation of pleasure and well-being
from good posture, Peterson said.
Looking at posture, people also react to body size.
Gothes are used to emphasize certain parts of the
body, he said.
To emphasize the chest, women may wear tops
with a strong-colored horizontal line' at the breast,
Peterson said. For instance, a dark sweater with a
white stripe, he said. A top with vertical stripes that
diverge and converge or squares that are distorted
may offer "some interesting optica! Elusions, he
added.
A dress with circles around the waist indicates an
hourglass figure, he sail. -
Long legs abo are a desrah2& characteristic in
women, he said. A woman can alter this with tall
shoes and beg pants. In addition, he said, long hair
makes legs look longer.
For men, Peterson sail the bade triangular figure
is most attractive to women. Open collars give the ef
. feet of a "V-shape and widen the shoulder appcar
ance.hesaid. Military uniforms with crossed belts and epaulets
emphasize big shoulders, he said.