If you ’re a woman , your old yearbook photos could predict whether you ’ll have a happy life . At least , that ’s what one bailiwick found — until you drill a bit deeper . Because it turns out the researchers were using a pretty minute definition of “ a happy life . ”
According to a 2001 sketch published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , a woman ’s facial expression in her college yearbook picture can be used to predict her overall winner and sensation of satisfaction in life . But as you might have suspected , the researchers ’ examination weather give much to be trust , and arouse some authoritative question .
In the study , the researchers identify a strong correlation between a woman ’s positive facial manifestation in her college yearbook photo , and what they report as her “ personality constancy and development across maturity ” ; the “ impressions and reaction ” she elicited from other people ; and her “ marital satisfaction and personal well - being up to 30 years later ; ” the overall conclusion being that “ distressed yearbook photos foretell unhappier lives , ” as the good folks over at NCBI ROFL put itin a mail yesterday .
But how incisively did the the researchers determine “ personal well being ” so they could correlate it with the cleaning lady ’s emotional locution in their year books ? turn out they took the autonomy of identifying which of the 114 charwoman who take part in the subject area had gotten married , and the eld at which they got hitchhike . The research worker drop a line :
Positive emotional face in the class - leger pictures was expected to betoken future marital status . Consistent with this expectation , women display more positive emotion were more potential to be married by age 27 and were less likely to stay single into middle maturity .
The nature of the investigator ’ hypothesis , and the data-based condition established to test it , suggest that the age at which a adult female espouse — if she marries at all — is linked to her personal stability and development . ( It ’s worth notice that 27 was not an intermediate , but rather a benchmark used by the research worker to determine whether the women had married later than their peers . Nowhere in the study do the authors explain why 27 age of age was chosen as a reference point . )
exact together with the other experimental category ( which , you ’ll recall , sought to quantify personality constancy & growth across adulthood , as well as the impressions and reactions elicited from other hoi polloi ) , the research worker seem to imply that women who exhibit an outward-bound show of positivist emotion are more likely to find enduring happiness ( in marriage , mind you ) than their less sparkly - eyed peer .
But can the long time at which a char decides to marry ( again , if she marries at all ) really be used to gauge whether she has reach a “ favorable ” outcome along her “ liveliness trajectory , ” as the researcher hint ? Given that a exchangeable study , carry in 1996 using photos of West Point graduates , found smile to be a negative prognosticator of golden animation - outcome in men ( “ lucky , ” in this representative , being quantify by the equally dubious touchstone of “ high military attainment ” and “ have more children ” ) , should studies like these not also report for factors like alternative relationship , or just focusing on your career in your 1920s ?
And what ever happened to the skillful old individual life ?
The dot of all these questions is to say that in a study such as this , examining the correlation between a fair sex ’s facial face and various aspects of her life sentence is one thing ( yes , adult female with cheery facial reflection in their yearbook photos tend to cover cracking overall sense of personal well - being ; and yes , stranger tend to describe women with ardent facial expressions as possessing more “ positively charged emotionalism and competency ” ) , but to actively identify something like wedding ( or , more specifically , marriage by a certain age ) , as a “ golden ” outcome along her “ life history flight ” is another thing entirely .
TheJournal of Personality and Social PsychologyviaNCBI ROFL
Top picture via Kirsten Smith / Shutterstock andhere
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