Take at face value

Our faces say more about us than cash ever can - except that employers are giving the beautiful people 20 per cent more than the rest of us. Are we back to the Stone Age? asks Susan Gray

PAY rises all round: Liz Hurley has revealed the fake tan and eyebrow secrets of her beauty routine. Lovely Liz has one of the world's most perfectly proportioned faces, and copycat sessions with the tweezers and bronzer could reap the 20 per cent higher salaries paid to attractive job applicants.

Good-looking people can also look forward to better school grades, shorter jail sentences,faster promo -tion and more job offers, according to Professor Brian Bates,director of the Human Face Research Project at Sussex University.

B ates was also psychologist-inresidence at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, teaching creativity, and training actors such as Kenneth Branagh and Jane Horrocks.

Facial pow er, with its 44 muscles,18 smiles and six universally recognised expressions of anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust and surprise, is m o re than skin deep.

Popular children are those best able to read others' moods by facial expressions - we like people who are sensitive to the way we're feeling.

At birth, face-reading skills begin: w e mimic our mother opening her mouth and moving her tongue.

"Something learned so early must be crucial to our survival," says B ates.

Faces are nature's identity tag: each one of the six billion human faces on earth is unique. Babies would rather gaze at human faces than at any other object; young children draw stick figures topped by huge, out-of-proportion faces; and illustrations popular with children put faces on everything from the sun and moon to train engines.

Quickly recognising friend from foe was essential for our ancestors, and caveman instincts live on in all sorts of ways.

Hold a mirror to your workplace.

W h at do you see? Women with symmetrical faces, big eyes, plump lips, w eight in proportion to height? Tall men with strong jaw s, strong brow s and wide noses, with car keys, laptops and cufflinks clearly visible?

Perhaps a higher concentration of blue-eyed redheads?

If this is the case, and it almost cer -tainly is, it's because organisations select employees the way cavemen selected mates.

In the Stone Age, symmetry was a sign of health, and now although symmetrical people are no healthier than asymmetrical ones, we still find it attractive. Just to underline the point, nature makes women 30 per cent more symmetrical 24 hours before ovulation.

W omen are less attracted to physi cal attributes, being more drawn to photos of unattractive doctors than good-looking mechanics or average-looking teachers.

"It's back to the Stone Age, women want dominant status," insists Bates.

And everybody loves blue-eyed red heads because clearly visible pupils m a ke their eyes more expressive w hen enlarging in fear or desire, w hile red hair's spherical molecules lend it a different appearance to all other colours.

B ates says: "When I see a company full of unattractive people, I'll be impressed, because I' ll know employees have been selected on their abilities."

Cracking a smile helps. American psychologist Paul Eckman, a world expert on expressions, estimates there are 18 varieties of smile, but only one natural one.

A spontaneous, natural smile comes from the eyes as well as the mouth, as the zygomaticus muscles running down from the eyes across the cheeks to the corners of the mouth contract in a true smile of enjoyment, instantly recognisable as the real deal.

A consciously contrived smile only involves the risorius muscles, pulling the lips sidew ays but not upward.

Asymmetrical expressions are unnerving, which is why game-show hosts' and used car salesmen'scheesy smiles project insincerity rather than building rapport.

Eckman'sresearch also show ed that female college graduates who gave a natural smile in their college year book, lead happier lives than their unsmiling counterparts.

Smile and the world smiles with you.

* T he Human Face by Brian Bates and John Cleese (BBC Worldwide, 14.99 ).

Face the facts

* Surprise's wide-eyed expression means we're at our most creative and productive - the best time to get the boss's approval for new ideas.

* Pushed-out tongue and screwed-up nose means body and senses have shut down, as if expelling poison. When a colleague says you or your plans disgust them, shut up, it's pointless to go on.

* During presentations, the eyes have it. Blinking once around every 20 seconds shows your audience understands what you're saying; if the blink rate increases to 11 times a minute, they've lost interest.

* Caught out by the boss? Blush and look embarrassed to get off lightly.

* Suspect somebody's being twofaced? Step back, relax, taking in the whole face during the conversation. Unconscious flashes of anger or contempt will show through the smile.

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