Is it true that you can tell a lot about a person's character by their face, or it that just an old ex wive's tale? Has anybody here ever made a correct judgment about someone based on their looks?

Jesus Is Lord wrote:Is it true that you can tell a lot about a person's character by their face,

No.

or it that just an old ex wive's tale?

Yes.

Has anybody here ever made a correct judgment about someone based on their looks?

Yes. While that might look like a contradiction, it isn't. We come to correct conclusions based on bullshit premises all the time. In fact, my go-to exposition of the fallacist's fallacy highlights this nicely.

P1. The moon is made of green cheese
P2. Jenson Button is German
C. Therefore, diamond is an elemental form of carbon.

Both premises are false, the reasoning entirely invalid, yet the conclusion is true. It's for precisely this reason that the fallacist's fallacy consists of rejecting the conclusion to an argument. The fallacy is avoided by the simple expedient of holding assessment of the conclusion in abeyance and rejecting the argument as not having supported the conclusion.

This tells us nothing about your question, though. No, you can't tell anything about a person's character by their face but, yes, you can make a correct determination based on nonsensical premises and invalid reasoning.

Edit: clarity.

Thanks.

I have made incorrect judgments based on appearances. I try very hard not to repeat it.

Define character. Wait, don't bother. J/k
Someone can look at my expanded waistline and conclude that I love pizza. My face? I dunno, they can tell I can't get a close shave.

The_Metatron wrote:I have made incorrect judgments based on appearances. I try very hard not to repeat it.

Some would say you can often tell whether or not you can trust someone by their face, and that it is incredibly naive to think that you should never judge a book by its cover.

I'd rather be naïve than carpet-bitingly stupid, and that's what anybody who thinks that bullshit is, as is anybody who bases their decisions and behaviours on what 'some might say'.

hackenslash wrote:I'd rather be naïve than carpet-bitingly stupid, and that's what anybody who thinks that bullshit is, as is anybody who bases their decisions and behaviours on what 'some might say'.

If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need.

Jesus Is Lord wrote:

hackenslash wrote:I'd rather be naïve than carpet-bitingly stupid, and that's what anybody who thinks that bullshit is, as is anybody who bases their decisions and behaviours on what 'some might say'.

If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need.

You mean, the way people can tell you're prejudiced just from your physiognomy? Yeah, if you're that carpet-bitingly stupid, have at it.

See, this is what you wrote:

Jesus Is Lord wrote:
Some would say you can often tell whether or not you can trust someone by their face, and that it is incredibly naive to think that you should never judge a book by its cover.

Then somebody noted that what you said is carpet-bitingly stupid, so you changed focus. Not that we can't see you do it.

Jesus Is Lord wrote:If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need.

You make it sound like prejudice is inherently bad. Prejudice - coupled with other features of out pattern-recognition capabilities - is an enormous part of our survival strategy. When you run away from the pattern that looks like a tiger hiding in the long grass, that's prejudice, and it kept you alive.

Prejudice isn't as big of a problem as some would suggest, though it comes with a suite of caveats concerning when and how it's applied.

Funnily enough, this is a topic I've been mulling at some length of late, as this core principle of pattern seeking, prejudice and common sense* is one of the topics I have under consideration for a book.

*Einstein once referred to 'common sense' as the collection of prejudices we accumulate by the age of eighteen. He wasn't entirely correct, but nor was he that wide of the mark. If he'd left the age restriction out, he'd have nailed it, because common sense and prejudice are in fact precisely the same thing, namely fallacious appeals to intuition.

hackenslash wrote:

Jesus Is Lord wrote:If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need.

You make it sound like prejudice is inherently bad. Prejudice - coupled with other features of out pattern-recognition capabilities - is an enormous part of our survival strategy. When you run away from the pattern that looks like a tiger hiding in the long grass, that's prejudice, and it kept you alive.

Prejudice isn't as big of a problem as some would suggest, though it comes with a suite of caveats concerning when and how it's applied.

Funnily enough, this is a topic I've been mulling at some length of late, as this core principle of pattern seeking, prejudice and common sense* is one of the topics I have under consideration for a book.

*Einstein once referred to 'common sense' as the collection of prejudices we accumulate by the age of eighteen. He wasn't entirely correct, but nor was he that wide of the mark. If he'd left the age restriction out, he'd have nailed it, because common sense and prejudice are in fact precisely the same thing, namely fallacious appeals to intuition.

See how he's changing focus, again, from ethnocentrism and physiognomy to general prejudice. Classic trolling.

hackenslash wrote:

Jesus Is Lord wrote:If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need.

You make it sound like prejudice is inherently bad. Prejudice - coupled with other features of out pattern-recognition capabilities - is an enormous part of our survival strategy. When you run away from the pattern that looks like a tiger hiding in the long grass, that's prejudice, and it kept you alive.

Prejudice isn't as big of a problem as some would suggest, though it comes with a suite of caveats concerning when and how it's applied.

Funnily enough, this is a topic I've been mulling at some length of late, as this core principle of pattern seeking, prejudice and common sense* is one of the topics I have under consideration for a book.

*Einstein once referred to 'common sense' as the collection of prejudices we accumulate by the age of eighteen. He wasn't entirely correct, but nor was he that wide of the mark. If he'd left the age restriction out, he'd have nailed it, because common sense and prejudice are in fact precisely the same thing, namely fallacious appeals to intuition.

I'll clarify what I meant. If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need, as there is nothing wrong with judging someone "pre" interacting with them. If you think you can't tell anything about someone from their face, then you really are naive. I don't know what your academic background is, but I get the feeling you've had a little too much academia and not a whole load of real world experience in dealing with people. Just a hunch.

Jesus Is Lord wrote:
I'll clarify what I meant. If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need, as there is nothing wrong with judging someone "pre" interacting with them. If you think you can't tell anything about someone from their face, then you really are naive. I don't know what your academic background is, but I get the feeling you've had a little too much academia and not a whole load of real world experience in dealing with people. Just a hunch.

No, you won't clarify what you meant, because this is how you started:

Jesus Is Lord wrote:Is it true that you can tell a lot about a person's character by their face, or it that just an old ex wive's tale? Has anybody here ever made a correct judgment about someone based on their looks?

Now you're doing bait and switch, because you're no longer talking about being able to tell "a lot" about someone from looking at their face. Classic trolling, and you're no fucking good at it. I emphasise your use of the word anything in the first quote, which you then use to insult academics vis a vis real world, which was not your focus in your OP. You need practice with elementary logic and rhetoric. Lots of practice.

Jesus Is Lord wrote:I'll clarify what I meant. If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need, as there is nothing wrong with judging someone "pre" interacting with them.

That depends on those inconvenient caveats.

If you think you can't tell anything about someone from their face, then you really are naive.

You can tell several things from somebody's face, but you can't tell anything about their character without other information.

I don't know what your academic background is, but I get the feeling you've had a little too much academia and not a whole load of real world experience in dealing with people. Just a hunch.

Many assume I have a strong academic background (so I must be doing something right), but your hunch is entirely incorrect. First, I have no academic background (and I really do mean none; I left school at 12 with no qualifications beyond grade 3 trumpet), I just read a lot and discuss with experts. Second, I'd be willing to bet large amounts of money that I'd garnered more real-world experience of dealing with people before I hit twenty than most manage in a long life. My professional background is deeply interactional and people-oriented, and I guarantee that background has given me more insight into people than you possess, as indicated by your asinine hunch.

Funny how you think you can tell things about people from their face but can't extrapolate the basics from what they actually say. You, on the other hand, are about as opaque as laser-grade optics, and we've all had you pegged from your first post, with no hunches required, simply from your behaviour.

Honestly, you're way out of your depth here.

hackenslash wrote:

Jesus Is Lord wrote:I'll clarify what I meant. If you're afraid of other people seeing you as prejudiced, there's really no need, as there is nothing wrong with judging someone "pre" interacting with them.

That depends on those inconvenient caveats.

If you think you can't tell anything about someone from their face, then you really are naive.

You can tell several things from somebody's face, but you can't tell anything about their character without other information.

I don't know what your academic background is, but I get the feeling you've had a little too much academia and not a whole load of real world experience in dealing with people. Just a hunch.

Many assume I have a strong academic background (so I must be doing something right), but your hunch is entirely incorrect. First, I have no academic background (and I really do mean none; I left school at 12 with no qualifications beyond grade 3 trumpet), I just read a lot and discuss with experts. Second, I'd be willing to bet large amounts of money that I'd garnered more real-world experience of dealing with people before I hit twenty than most manage in a long life. My professional background is deeply interactional and people-oriented, and I guarantee that background has given me more insight into people than you possess, as indicated by your asinine hunch.

Funny how you think you can tell things about people from their face but can't extrapolate the basics from what they actually say. You, on the other hand, are about as opaque as laser-grade optics, and we've all had you pegged from your first post, with no hunches required, simply from your behaviour.

Honestly, you're way out of your depth here.

No need to defend yourself dude. We're just chatting here, this isn't a court of law. Chill. Getting back on topic, what can you tell from someone's face?

Jesus Is Lord wrote:Getting back on topic, what can you tell from someone's face?

Here's a face for you, then:



That's the face of recently-deceased Gwen Shamblin Lara, who more or less used to run the show at Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood, TN, USA. Shamblin Lara is known for a weight-loss-scam hooked into a religious cult. I don't need to know that much about the cult, though. Was it the years, or was it the mileage?

What about her?

Jesus Is Lord wrote:What about her?

You have all these great COVID notions. Do your own research. Shamblin Lara was the leader of a cult that tied together weight loss and god. She died in a plane crash that left only small pieces of the passengers that looked like chicken giblets. She has no face, any more, but the wrong she did will outlive her. It's a good face to test how much you can tell about a person from her face.

Jesus Is Lord wrote:No need to defend yourself dude.

Where did I do that?

We're just chatting here, this isn't a court of law.

No, because we have evidential standards here not found in a court of law.

Chill.

You won't get another warning about this before you learn the reason for my reputation. I've been gentle thus far.

Getting back on topic, what can you tell from someone's face?

You can tell a fair bit about ancestry, for instance. Lots of clues about that in bone structure, eye shape and colour, etc.

Cito di Pense wrote:

Jesus Is Lord wrote:What about her?

You have all these great COVID notions. Do your own research. Shamblin Lara was the leader of a cult that tied together weight loss and god. She died in a plane crash that left only small pieces of the passengers that looked like chicken giblets. She has no face, any more, but the wrong she did will outlive her. It's a good face to test how much you can tell about a person from her face.

Ok. So?