KOMPAS.com – Perhaps, more than any other physical trait, Beard on Men often seen as a sign of masculinity.
Whiskers clearly distinguishes men from women, and is known to mask emotions, provide warmth, and protect the skin from the elements that attack facial skin.
On the other hand, most evolutionary theorists believe, beard evolved as a form of display of dominance, masculinity, and aggression.
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So, what is the sign that a man should send when maintaining his beard?
Also, what social information could possibly be conveyed from existence beard the?
This is a question that a group of Australian researchers explored in a paper published in Psychological Science.
First, they asked 227 respondents to look at a series of photographs of people’s faces and rate, as quickly as possible, whether the faces represented happiness or anger.
The photos consist of four different kinds of faces – clean shaven men express happiness, and clean shaven men express anger.
Then, there are photos of bearded men showing happiness, and bearded men showing anger.
Importantly, to avoid experimental bias, the same male photo was used in all of these conditions.
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The men were photographed with happy expressions angry when clean-shaven, and again with a full beard – at least eight weeks of unmopped facial hair growth.
This condition wants to eliminate the possibility of the influence of systematic facial structure, or differences in expression between men who choose beards and those who choose to shave clean.
Interestingly, the researchers found, respondents were quicker to classify bearded photos into angry expressions than any other type of photo.
These findings suggest that beards increase visual cues associated with recognition of anger.
It was also found that respondents were quicker to classify a clean shaven face as a happy face.
The researchers then undertook a follow-up study to rule out the possibility that a general negative bias towards bearded men could explain the results of their first study.
To test this, the researchers replicated the study, swapping angry faces for sad faces.
Their idea was, if the same yield pattern emerged for sad bearded faces as it did for angry bearded faces, it is likely that a general negative bias towards beards would emerge as well.
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However, if the findings were found specifically for beard and association amarah, then their original hypothesis would more likely be, the impact limited to anger.
And, it was true. The results of follow-up studies suggest the effect is limited to anger.
“Because, participants were slower in recognizing sad expressions on bearded faces, than on clean -shaved faces.”
“This shows that the superiority of recognition for bearded faces observed in experiment I does not generalize to all negative expressions,” said the researcher.
The social benefits of a beard
A third experiment examined the possible social benefits associated with beards. Again, this study uses a similar experimental design.
The researchers asked 450 participants to rate faces in the photos as used in the first experiment.
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The images are meant to trigger the respondent’s “opinion” and measurements for aggressiveness, masculinity, and prosociality.
The results are not surprising. Bearded faces are rated higher for masculinity and aggressiveness.
But here’s where it gets interesting. The researchers also found that bearded faces were rated as more prosocial than clean shaven faces.
Yes, because specifically, a bearded happy face is rated more prosocial than a clean -shaven happy face.
So, what does all these findings mean?
There seems to be a duality when it comes to bearded men. A beard can indeed show dignity, especially when expressing anger or frustration.
But this side can also be eliminated with a smile, resulting in a face that is considered more helpful, accepting, and friendly, than a shaved face.
Nah, this can certainly be a consideration for those of you who want to keep a bearded, or even want to get a razor right away.
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