How Academics Face the World: A Study of 5829 Homepage Pictures
http://wwffm.org/2012/07/21/how-academics-face-the-world-a-study-of-5829-homepage-pictures/
I like seeing off the wall research topics like this one. Makes me feel good about any idea I might ever have. I couldn't bring myself to read the entire paper, but the gist is that photos of academics on their faculty websites show either the left or right cheek and this correlates to their discipline. The authors explain that the left cheek forward shows more emotion so science faculty are not as inclined to display that side. The idea here is that science faculty are lacking emotive qualities and humanities faculty are more sensitive. This alone is comical stereotyping, but stereotypes exist for a reason I suppose.
What I am still wondering about though are all the other confounding factors. What about handed-ness? Were all the subjects right handed? And what about the photographer who took these pictures? Perhaps it is his/her tendency that is being observed here. Or maybe the web designer chose these images from a group and it is her bias we see. Maybe it matters which side of the page the image is on.
Or maybe they are right after all. My image on my faculty page shows an old avatar from Second Life. I guess I should update that - I think I will take my image with left cheek forward, but then flip it horizontally in Photoshop.
