Although we find it more pleasant and we spend more time looking at beautiful people, we remember the ugly ones better. This is stated by a study by the University of Jena (Germany), after demonstrating that a symmetrical face with harmonious proportions, in accordance with the canon of female facial beauty, is remembered to a lesser extent than an unattractive face with extravagant features. According to the authors, a pretty face does not leave a trace in our memory if it does not have some peculiar characteristic that makes it unique , such as exorbitantly large eyes or very prominent lips like those of the actress Angelina Jolie.
This new work disproves the popular belief that perfectly sized faces, such as those painted by Da Vinci according to the Golden Ratio, are best remembered by providing us with greater visual satisfaction. The psychologists showed a group of volunteers various photographs of the faces of unknown people. Of these faces, half were unattractive people, and the participants barely had a few seconds to memorize them. Days later, the researchers showed them the images again and found that the less attractive faces were remembered to a greater extent . The study also revealed that, in the case of attractive faces, a large number of false positives occurred, that is, that the participants declared that they recognized a face without having seen it before.
Previous studies carried out in different countries have achieved the universal ideal of female facial beauty: high and slightly prominent cheekbones, large eyes, protruding and triangular chin, small distances between nose and mouth and between nose and chin, full and thick lips, and arched eyebrows. In view of the new job, these features make all eyes fall on us, but they do not ensure that the next time they see us they will remember our name .
