Good news? We might all look better in our masks
It is an iconic photograph of one of the world’s most beautiful women but, experts say, the picture only proves how less is more.
Scientists have cited Terry O’Neill’s 1971 picture of Brigitte Bardot, with her hair blowing across her face partly obscuring her features, as an example of how the less we show, the better looking we become.
According to a recent study, outlined in magazine Psychology Today, hiding half the face significantly increases its attractiveness to observers, with the authors of the research noting that “50% less face” produces “40% more attractiveness”.
Conducted by scientists at the University of Lethbridge, in Canada, the study, called Face Perception Loves A Challenge: Less Information Sparks More Attraction, also found that blurring the face to remove visual information produced a similar effect.
Although participants’ faces were covered vertically on the left or right-hand side, the results do still suggest that wearing a face mask could increase our attractiveness to others.
The brain decides whether a person is regarded as attractive within around 13 thousandths of a second, so why does less information improve the result?
Further exploring the psychology behind covering the face and perceptions of beauty, Dr Raj Persaud and Dr Peter Bruggen reference the “less is more” theory of facial attractiveness, which argues our brains are forced to fill in the missing features, creating a more desirable version than reality because our unconscious mind automatically reverts to the best case scenario.