Brown eyes appear more trustworthy than baby blues (2024)
Gazing into people’s eyes can offer insight into whether they can be trusted, and according to new research, this perception may have something to do with eye color.
A studypublished in the journal PLOS ONE found that brown-eyed people are believed to be more trustworthy than blue-eyed people.
Does that mean that you can trust well-known brown-eyed girls (and boys) like Hugh Jackman and Sandra Bullock more than Jude Law and Reese Witherspoon?
Not exactly, since eye color doesn’t paint the whole picture of what trustworthiness looks like.
“It is not eye color, but face shape associated with eye color that causes the higher perception of trustworthiness,” wrote lead study author Karel Kleisner of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, in an email to NBCNews.com. “
Kleisner and his colleagues asked more than 200 students to rate how much they could trust a series of 80 male and female faces with either brown or blue eyes.
Subjects rated the brown-eyed faces as being more trustworthy, but that wasn’t the end of the story.
To demonstrate that eye color isn’t the final answer when it comes to trustworthiness, the researchers then asked a second group of students to rate the same faces, but with the eye colors digitally switched.
The faces rated the most trustworthy by the first group received similar ratings from the second group, even though the eyes were now different colors. The authors surmised that some other characteristic must play a role.
In general, faces judged as more trustworthy are narrower, have bigger eyes, and broader mouths with upward-oriented lips. Kleisner explained that these are characteristics associated with brown eyes.
On the other hand, blue eyes tend to be smaller, meaning many blue-eyed faces are pointier and longer with eyebrows that are far apart.
Favoring those big, brown, puppy-dog eyes may have some social implications, Kleisner explained.
“This may further lead to social stereotypes that affect a broad range of social situations from mate choice and business partner selection to political marketing and democratic processes,” he wrote.
But despite being viewed as less trustworthy, blue-eyed individuals may have something working in their favor – at least in Northern Europe.
Blue eyes, the authors explained, are very common throughout that part of the world, most likely because they are considered more attractive. The preference for blue eyes, they added, makes up for the perceived lack of trustworthiness.
Kleisner added that the research needs to be replicated using different photos and different subjects, and he cautioned against over-interpreting the significance of the findings.
So don't look too deeply into those puppy dog eyes just yet.
According to the study, "We concluded that although the brown-eyed faces were perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones, it was not brown eye color per se that caused the stronger perception of trustworthiness but rather the facial features associated with brown eyes."
Gazing into people's eyes can offer insight into whether they can be trusted, and according to new research, this perception may have something to do with eye color. A study published in the journal PLOS ONE found that brown-eyed people are believed to be more trustworthy than blue-eyed people.
In conclusion, brown-eyed individuals tend to be perceived as more trustworthy than blue-eyed ones within a population with variable eye color, but it is not brown eyes that cause this perception. It is the facial morphology linked to brown eyes.
We tested whether eye color influences perception of trustworthiness. Facial photographs of 40 female and 40 male students were rated for perceived trustworthiness. Eye color had a significant effect, the brown-eyed faces being perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones.
The bey2 gene has one allele for brown eyes and one for blue eyes. The allele for brown eyes is the most dominant allele and is always dominant over the other two alleles and the allele for green eyes is always dominant over the allele for blue eyes, which is always recessive.
There is no basis that brown eyed people are unpredictable. Moreover Brown-eyed people ate found to be more trustworthy than blue-eyed people which was concluded by a recent study.
Of all eye colors, brown seems to be the only one that could be called “advantageous” from a survival perspective. While more research is needed, darker irises are linked to a number of health benefits, including these: Reduced risk of macular degeneration. Lower melanoma risk.
Brown-eyed individuals are determined to achieve their goals and possess strong mental strength. Whether you have dark or light brown eyes, people feel calm and secure in your presence. This could be due to the fact that your eye color feels familiar and safe, considering it is the most common.
If you have brown eyes, you'll be happy to know they have been associated with some health benefits. People with brown eyes may be less vulnerable to certain diseases. For example, people with brown eyes appear less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration than people with light-colored eyes.
The old myth about genetics is that a single gene was responsible for eye color. Under this myth, it was believed that two blue-eyed parents couldn't give birth to a brown-eyed child. However, it turns out that there could be as many as 16 genes that determine eye color.
When broken down by gender, men ranked gray, blue, and green eyes as the most attractive, while women said they were most attracted to green, hazel, and gray eyes. Despite brown eyes ranking at the bottom of our perceived attraction scale, approximately 79% of the world's population sports melanin-rich brown eyes.
True fact: about 10,000 years ago, every human on Earth had brown eyes. Now, half of all people in the U.S. have brown eyes. Worldwide, that number could be even greater. The brown color comes from melanin, a pigment in our eyes that also gives a brown color to hair, skin and other cells.
Of those four, green is the rarest. It shows up in about 9% of Americans but only 2% of the world's population. Hazel/amber is the next rarest color after green. Blue is the second most common and brown tops the list, found in 45% of the U.S. population and possibly almost 80% worldwide.
People with blue eyes may have better sight in dim conditions than those with brown eyes, according to LJMU research reported in New Scientist. The theory could explain why the colour has persisted in certain populations, for example in Northern Europe where skies are darker.
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Introduction: My name is Roderick King, I am a cute, splendid, excited, perfect, gentle, funny, vivacious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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