Did You Know?

This is really amazing – something we were not aware of as a general fact!

Want to capture your “good” side in your next photo? Show off that left cheek.

According to a 2012 study from Wake Forest University, the left side of a person’s face often expresses more emotion than the right, and onlookers tend to find that more aesthetically pleasing. When people were asked to rate the pleasantness of male and female profiles presenting both a left and right cheek, the participants overwhelmingly chose the left as more pleasant.

One theory for this left-faced bias is that emotion and spatial awareness is largely dominated by the right hemisphere of our brain but is lateralized to the left side of our body, so emotions are expressed more intensely on the left side of our face.

Interestingly, Western artists throughout the centuries have had a bias for painting portraits with subjects displaying their left cheek, especially women, with “Mona Lisa” being a prime example.

So now you know! Give the left side the next time you are being photographed!