How to Identify a Narcissist: Check the Eyebrows [research study]

Even people who are not narcissists may be fascinated by narcissists. This newly published study directs everyone’s attention to the eyebrows: “Eyebrows Cue Grandiose Narcissism,” Miranda Giacomin and Nicholas O. Rule [pictured here], Journal of Personality, epub 2018. (Thanks to Minna Lyons for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the University of Toronto, explain: […]

‘Spock,’ ‘Joker,’ & ‘Mephisto’ eyebrows – avoidance techniques for aesthetic surgeons

Aesthetic surgeons in the business of facial wrinkle reduction have noted that if one weakens the glabella muscle with injections of AbobotulinumtoxinA without also weakening the frontalis muscle, unwanted side effects can occur. Known in the trade as ‘Spock,’ ‘Joker,’ or ‘Mephisto’ eyebrows. These side effects can be avoided by also injecting the fontalis muscle […]

Computerised gender classification (part 1: eyebrows)

Can you tell a person’s gender from just a glimpse of their eyebrows? Could a computerised system do the same? To find out, a project was undertaken by Yujie Dong (of the Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University) and Damon L. Woodard (now at the Biometrics and Pattern Recognition Lab, University of […]

Improbable Research