JAMA: Facial rejuvenation surgery may not only make you look younger, it
may improve perceptions of you with regard to likeability, social
skills, attractiveness and femininity, according to a report published
online by
JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery. The relationship between facial features and personality traits has
been studied in other science fields, but it is lacking in the surgical
literature. Researchers measured the changes in personality
perception that happen with facial rejuvenation surgery. The study included preoperative and postoperative photographs of 30
white female patients who had facial plastic surgery from 2009 through
2013. The procedures included face-lift, upper and lower eyelid surgery,
eyebrow-lift, neck-lift and/or chin implant. Individual raters scored
the photographs for six personality traits (aggressiveness,
extroversion, likeability, trustworthiness, risk seeking and social
skills), as well as attractiveness and femininity. The same patient’s
preoperative and postoperative photographs were not included in any
single group to avoid any recall bias. There was statistically significant improvement between preoperative
and postoperative scores for likeability, social skills, attractiveness
and femininity when all the facial plastic surgery procedures were
evaluated together. Improvement in scores for the other traits was not
statistically significant, according to the results.
