Asymmetry of the human face

The property of a human face which interests us in this article is that at most of people, the left and right sides of a face aren't absolutely identical and symmetrized also slightly not.

The asymmetry of the human face is very visible in the famous photo of Abraham Lincoln (he had a particularly not symmetrical face). In fact, this photo is taken exactly in front of Lincoln's face, although his torso is slightly turned. In the first photo we see the original photo, in the second - its mirror reflection, in the third - Lincoln's face, composed of two of his left halves, in the fourth - of two right. The last two photos especially clearly illustrate the effect described. The results of the same operations with a woman's face are presented below. Makeup hides facial asymmetry, so this effect is less noticeable, but nevertheless it is obviously present, because the last two photos are still significantly different.

People are so accustomed to this phenomenon that they may even seem slightly unnatural to the absolutely symmetrical face of another person if they met such a thing. In view of such a large habit of our asymmetry of the faces of all our familiar and not familiar people, we do not even notice this difference between the left and right sides of human faces, or rather do not attach importance to it.

But this phenomenon is still manifested in a very interesting way. The fact is that people see themselves most often in a mirror, where their face is reflected from left to right, and get used to such their "mirror" appearance. But all other people and cameras see people for real, without mirroring.

In view of the asymmetry of the face, the picture that people see in the mirror, and what other people and cameras see, are different. Thus, in the photo, a person sees himself real, and in the mirror reflected from left to right. The appearance of a person in a mirror is more familiar to him, so looking at his photograph, almost all people notice unknowingly "something is wrong," and perceive it as "ugly."

Therefore, most people do not like their images in the photo. Although in fact it is only habits, because in reality the people in the photo, in reality and in the mirror are equally beautiful. And true, there are no objective and even subjective reasons, to consider, for example, the image of Lincoln in the first photo, more beautiful than in the second. Mirroring any painting does not change its beauty.

In addition, for other people, the image of some person they know in the photo seems familiar, which means that there is actually as beautiful as a person, because other people and cameras see the real person equally correctly.

For strangers, there is no difference that they will see another person in the photo, because they are not yet accustomed to his appearance. For example, for us reading these lines, Lincoln's first and second photos are the same from an aesthetic point of view, although he himself, accustomed to his mirror reflection (i.e. to the second photo), apparently perceived his true photos (the first photo) as very "ugly" his images.

But what if you still want to start liking yourself in the photo? There are two recipes:

Reflect your photos from left to right. You will see yourself familiar and your photo will please you. 1. But this method has a very big minus: you will only like this photo, because the rest of your acquaintances will suddenly see you reflected for them, and in turn they will seem "something wrong" and "ugly," they are then used to seeing you in the photo and in reality the same and real. Therefore, it is better to keep these photos, and still post the original versions of the photos on social networks.

2. Do not look in the mirror, but instead take a selfie. In this case, you will constantly see yourself real and gradually get used to your real image, and you will begin to like your photos in which you are again depicted real.