Have you ever been told that you have the face to call yourself by such a name? Science has just revealed this issue, demonstrating through a study that faces adapt to the name we receive. The process is gradual, since as children the adaptation is less, but in adulthood it is complete.
You’re fulfilling a self-fulfilling prophecy
The recent study published in the journal PNAS led by Dr. Yonat Zwebner, from Reichman University in Israel, has revealed that faces adapt to the name given to the person. How has it been verified? By asking children and adults to associate faces with names and using AI to identify patterns between faces.
Both age groups were shown photographs of adult faces and given a choice of four name options. Curiously, they used to choose the right option, with a much higher percentage of success than chance. However, when they were shown photos of children, the percentage of success was much lower.
Later the photos of children were artificially aged, something that you can also do on the mobile, but the percentage of success was drastically lower than when “natural” photos of adults were shown.
In addition, an artificial intelligence was asked to examine the faces of adults. Interestingly, he identified patterns for the names, that is, those who shared a name also shared other similarities. At the same time, the AI was asked to examine the children’s faces, but it did not observe patterns.
All this reveals that our face fits our name. This is a clear example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which the prediction of an event is the reason why it is fulfilled. In this case, from a young age we have a conception of what faces with a certain name are like, which results in us adapting to it subconsciously throughout our lives.
Likewise, we must be aware of the limits of study. It has been made in a Hebrew country with a base of Caucasian faces. These factors may have influenced the final conclusions, and should be confirmed in other areas of the world with other cultures. In any case, the next time someone tells you “you have the face to call yourself” you will know that behind that phrase there is a scientific truth hidden.
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