Face Facts
Mohinder Singh

Everything is in the face. — Cicero

EVERY human face is unique. Six billion faces on earth and no two exactly alike. Even identical twins are never identical; their faces, like their fingerprints, are always distinct.

You might think it a foolish design, putting all the vital stuff — eyes, nose, mouth, ears — in one small place, mostly unprotected, on top of a wobbly neck.

But then the face is our signature in flesh and bone. Faces adorn driving licences, passports, credit cards, ID cards — any document that might require proof of its link to us. And photographs of the faces of dear ones adorn our walls and tables.

Computer software that can identify faces is developing fast. And its widespread use is expected in banks, ATMs, and other security settings. Machines and cars can be human-centric, with the ability to recognise the face of the operator.

We live in a universe of faces. Yet we can recognise a single one instantly. We have special brain circuits for the task and we’re adept in making use of those circuits.

A cavalcade of faces passes before us in life, a stupendous stream from crib to coffin, and they are all basically similar: two eyes, a nose, a mouth. Yet we recognise a person’s features swiftly, even after gaps of 50 years. We also adjust for changes with age, such as greying hair, wrinkled brows, bags under the eyes, drooping nose, lines at the corners of the mouth, and receding chin. As computer scientists know, it’s an astonishing skill.

The ability kicks in early. A newborn learns to identify its mother, following her facial features more closely than any other female’s.

We identify odd faces more quickly, easily, and confidently than typical ones. Yet we don’t recognise faces by their parts. Rather, we sense the whole array of features. Our brain can stumble on details but it identifies a configuration brilliantly. This is not surprising, since our brain is geared to patterns.

According to psychologists, we use two quite separate networks in the brain to recognise a face and to register its emotions. Ultimately the two get united — which is why an angry look from a younger sibling does not have the same effect as an angry look from your boss.

People are better at identifying faces of their own race, a phenomenon called the "own-race bias". It is a fairly small effect, but all races demonstrate it. Attempts to train people to overcome it have largely floundered.

We can tell a male face from a female quite easily and instantly. The skill is central, since facial lines define the sex that attracts us. We need to know them to perpetuate the species. Identifying gender face is so important that evolution seems to have made it automatic. Yet, when asked, few of us can articulate the differences between men’s and women’s faces.

At puberty male and female faces grow more disparate, and in old age they swing back toward similarity again.

Men in general have craggier features. Their brows and chins jut out more. Their foreheads often slope more steeply, and their eyes lie in deeper sockets.

Women have smaller faces, usually about four-fifths the size of men’s. Their faces look more babylike — and we have hard-wired response to the baby face. Women’s eyes appear much bigger, with eyelashes thicker and longer. Women have smaller, wider, and more concave noses, like children’s.

However, there is no litmus test for telling men’s faces from women’s. No surprise a few men and women are able to impersonate successfully as the other sex.

The living face is the most important and mysterious, as well as the most expressive surface we deal with. It is a showcase of self, and houses four of the five classic senses. Our minds light on the face like butterflies on a flower, for the face gives us a priceless flow of information.

Face signals are universal. It’s a language that’s common over the whole globe — a sort of facial Esperanto. The core of the facial code lies in a few basic glyphs, the prominent among them: enjoyment, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, and sadness.

The most easily recognised expression is the true smile, the flare of happiness. The mouth curves, cheeks hoist, pressing skin towards the eye in a squint of joy. In a wider smile, the teeth flash and the eyes glisten. Not every smile indicates pleasure, but the true smile is unmistakable. People who have had plastic surgery done to remove their crow’s-feet come across as "insincere" because they can only smile with their mouths.

In anger the face seems to contract. The eyebrows descend, and the lips tighten. Blood rushes into an irate face.

Fear has almost the opposite characteristics. The eyes widen, the eyebrows lift and move toward each other. The lips pull back. As fear worsens, the lips may tremble. the mouth dries. In terror, nostrils dilate and perspiration dots the forehead— the legendary "cold sweat".

Surprise resembles fear and often precedes it. Both the eyes and mouth fly open, and the eyebrows rise and arch.

Disgust centres on the nose, not otherwise a marvel of expression. It may partly turn up, wrinkle, and contract, as when sensing a revolting odour. The mouth comes into play as well, often in the shape of spitting.

Our bushy eyebrows may have limited use in keeping sweat out of the eyes, but they play a major role in communicating such emotions as happiness, anger, aggression, surprise and fear. Lips and cheeks are also important for communication.

Indeed humans have an uncanny ability to determine whether someone is looking directly at them. The brain can do this complex task in thousands of a second; reflecting the importance of correctly assessing whether that man is going to attack you, or that woman has more than a passing interest in you.

Sadness makes the face seem to sag. The eyebrows drop. Wrinkles pool in mid-forehead. The mouth droops into a frown and the features slacken — we develop a "long face".

Surely there are numerous other expressions and signals that a face is capable of sending out, both consciously and unconsciously.

The face, and its role in communication, has therefore become one of the hottest topics in psychology and neuroscience. By understanding how we use our faces, and how we perceive the facial expressions of others, scientists hope to gain new insights into the human condition and into its range of mental states.

The Chinese, more than any other people, have made a special study of the art of face-reading. They call it Siang Mien, and this now encompasses voluminous studies. It is claimed that through Siang Mien you can read the character of anyone you meet and tell his or her fortune. Faces are perceived as kind, greedy, sensual, ambitious, cruel.

No wonder, people can spend a fortune to hide the signs of facial defects or deterioration. They are willing to go under anesthesia to have their face altered — bits put in here, bits shaved off. The plastic surgeons and the make-up industry prosper.

The power of the image of the human face is unarguable.