Daniel_Burfoot comments on Post ridiculous munchkin ideas! - Less Wrong

55 Post author: D_Malik 15 May 2013 10:27PM

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Comment author: Daniel_Burfoot 10 May 2013 11:16:06PM 1 point [-]

I have a crankish theory that looking downwards lowers your unconscious estimation of your own social status

Why is this crankish? I consider this totally plausible.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 11 May 2013 12:19:26AM 2 points [-]

Related: I have a messy selection of anecdotal and apocryphal evidence that exacerbating relative height differences between men and women has an immediate effect on how attractive they find each other, (i.e. if a [hetero] man is standing on a chair and looking down at a [hetero] woman, he will find her instantly more attractive than if he were standing at ground level, and vice versa).

Comment author: D_Malik 11 May 2013 10:42:36AM 10 points [-]

This study is relevant:

Abstract: Human faces show marked sexual shape dimorphism, and this affects their attractiveness. Humans also show marked height dimorphism, which means that men typically view women’s faces from slightly above and women typically view men’s faces from slightly below. We tested the idea that this perspective difference may be the evolutionary origin of the face shape dimorphism by having males and females rate the masculinity/femininity and attractiveness of male and female faces that had been manipulated in pitch (forward or backward tilt), simulating viewing the face from slightly above or below. As predicted, tilting female faces upwards decreased their perceived femininity and attractiveness, whereas tilting them downwards increased their perceived femininity and attractiveness. Male faces tilted up were judged to be more masculine, and tilted down judged to be less masculine. This suggests that sexual selection may have embodied this viewpoint difference into the actual facial proportions of men and women.

Comment author: CAE_Jones 12 May 2013 12:26:16PM 1 point [-]

I'm strongly tempted to provide anecdotes related to this, and was halfway to the reply box before I caught myself and remembered how tied up this is in my personal brand of weird.

Suffice it to say, I totally believe that standing erect and facing forward is better for mood/confidence overall. (And that believing this is not sufficient reason for me to do so all that often.)

Comment author: D_Malik 15 May 2013 02:43:05AM 0 points [-]

This sounds interesting. Could you say why this isn't enough reason for you to stand erect and forward-facing more often?

Comment author: CAE_Jones 16 May 2013 09:09:56AM 0 points [-]

For personal reasons I generally don't expect people to take seriously. The short version is I fail at keeping my identity small.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 May 2013 10:10:45AM 0 points [-]

To the extent that height correlates with status and status is positional, I'd naively expect it to be the other way round (you look upwards when you're surrounded by taller people and downwards when you're surrounded by shorter people).

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