Turn the Left Cheek – “Science News”

Ever wondered which way to face when you’re having your photo taken?

Research completed by Park, Spence, Ishii, and Togawa can be useful next time you’re posing for a photo!

This team explored  “the influence of the face orientation of a human model on the perception of their attractiveness and its downstream consequences on product evaluation.

Across five experiments, we first demonstrate that consumers tend to perceive a model’s face showing his or her left cheek as more attractive than when showing the right cheek, even when the images are otherwise identical.

More importantly, we demonstrate the downstream influence of face orientation on the evaluation of advertised products whereby the leftward (vs. rightward) model’s face increases the evaluation of the advertised product through perceived model attractiveness. . . .”

Also they noted that ” consumers perceive those faces showing their left (vs. right) cheek as more prototypical, and that this perception of prototypicality elicits an aesthetic preference for the model’s leftward face which in turn carries over to influence product evaluation.”

Jaewoo Park, Charles Spence, Hiroaki Ishii, and Taku Togawa.  2021.  “Turning the Other Cheek:  Facial Orientation Influences Both Model Attractiveness and Product Evaluation.”  Psychology and Marketing, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 7-20, https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21398