The -ism Series (38): Face-ism

The term "face-ism" was first introduced in an article published by Archer et al. in 1983. It refers to the relative facial prominence (ratio of the face to the total visible body) in depictions of men versus women. In their five studies, the authors assessed the prevalence of face-ism in five US-American magazines and newspapers (n = 1.750), in publications from 11 cultures (n = 3.500), and in artwork over 600 years (920 portraits and self-portraits). They found evidence that men are depicted with greater facial dominance than women. 

The authors observed this difference also in amateur drawings of men and women (by 40 male and 40 female undergraduate students). Most interestingly, in their fifth study, they found ratings of intelligence and personality characteristics depending on the facial prominence (n = 60) (Archer et al., 1983).

The phenomenon of face-ism and the varying judgement of persons based on facial prominence was found in a great many studies following Archer et al.'s, such as the attribution of less mental activity and morality, less intelligence and likeability to people with less facial prominence.

Cus Babic, Robert and Musil's (2018) findings are also consistent with previous research showing that face-ism is also prevalent on the internet. In their analysis of selfies (n = 2.754) from Bankgok, Berlin, London, Moscow, New York and Sao Paolo posted on Instagram, the authors came to the conclusion that photographs of men focus on the face while those of women focus more on their bodies.

Face-ism is also seen as a manifestation of sexism since "Western societies traditionally value men’s intellect, more prominence is given to men’s faces, whereas the relative prominence of women’s bodies communicates the value placed on their physical appearance instead of their intellect". Less face and more body enhances the perception of object-like persons (Cheek, 2016).

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- Archer, D., Iritani, B., Kimes, D. D., & Barrios, M. (1983). Face-ism: Five studies of sex differences in facial prominence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(4), 725–735.
- Cheek, N. N. (2016). Face-ism and Objectification in Mainstream and LGBT Magazines. PLoS One, 11(4), link
- Cus Babic, N, Robert, T. & Musil, B. (2018). Revealing faces: Gender and cultural differences in facial prominence of selfies, PLoS One, 13(10).
- photograph by Joel Meyerowitz via