They say first appearances can be deceptive. But people can tell a surprising amount about your personality from a photograph, one study found.
The study involved showing people photos of 123 undergrads at the University of Texas at Austin in two poses: one where they were told to face the camera with a neutral expression, and one in which they could pose however they wanted.
Then, strangers were asked to judge them on certain aspects of their personality. No matter what position they took, viewers were surprisingly accurate: While people were better at judging someone's extroversion, self-esteem, religiosity, agreeableness, and conscientiousness when they were spontaneous, they could also judge the first 3 traits when they were posed.