Have you ever noticed that celebrities prefer to show their left cheek more often than their right one on Instagram? You, yourself might like your left profile better than the other and it is no coincidence because, as we’ve recently discovered, there’s a valid reason for it.
A research has shown that our left cheek shows a higher range of emotions than the right, which is more pleasing to the eyes. The research team which was led by Kelsey Blackburn and James Schirillo from Wake Forest University carried an experiment. They asked study participants to rate the pleasantness of both left and right profile of male and female faces on grey-scale photographs. They were presented with original photos and mirror-reversed pictures, so that original right-cheek image could also be seen as left-cheek and vice versa.
They found that left-sided portraits were more prefered, regardless of it being the original picture or mirror-reversed one. The left side of the face got a much better rating in terms of being aesthetically pleasing for both male and female.
The research was not only based on participant’s choices, it was also confirmed by measuring pupil size, which is a reliable measurement of interest. When you look at a more pleasing or interesting image, pupils dilate in response to it and constricts when looking at unpleasant images.
According to the researchers, “Our results suggest that posers’ left cheeks tend to exhibit a greater intensity of emotion, which observers find more aesthetically pleasing. Our findings provide support for a number of concepts – the notions of lateralized emotion and right hemispheric dominance with the right side of the brain controlling the left side of the face during emotional expression.”
Don’t believe it yet? Check some of your beloved Bollywood celebs posing their left profiles while trying to express their best in the moment.
You see it now? So go and flash that left cheek of yours!