Phenotype vs Physiognomy - Does your Race affect your Personality?

Now more than ever, race is one of the most controversial hot-button issues out there. People are always double-checking and holding their tongues to avoid anything that might be perceived as “racist.” So of course, a science such as physiognomy, which concerns itself with determining the content of a person’s character by their outward appearance, quickly draws accusations of “racism” from both the innocently ill-informed as well as from bad-faith actors. I always like to address such accusations with a level head and an open heart, seeking to educate rather than debunk. How does race play into and affect the science of face reading? What is meant by terms like “phenotype” or “physiognomy,” and how are they related to each other? I will answer all these questions and more in today’s blog post.

First, we should define our terms here, starting with race. What we mean by “race” here can more precisely be labeled “phenotype.” In biology, a phenotype is the physical expression of a certain genetic code, itself referred to as the “genotype.” In the human context, phenotype usually refers to traits that differ between groups of people, not just individuals. These shared group traits are generally the result of common ancestry or adaptation to the same environment or climate. For example, people with African ancestry have darker skin to better protect themselves from heat and UV rays, whereas people with Northern European ancestry have lighter skin to be able to absorb more vitamin D in cold and cloudy Europe. This climatic adaptation extends to many traits, including but not limited to, the aforementioned skin color, hair color, hair texture, skull length and breadth, eye shape and depth, nose length and shape, and lip fullness.

So, race tells us about a person’s ancestry and group belonging; but what about their individual character? That is where their face, or physiognomy, comes in. Physiognomy, also known as face reading. is the art and science of assessing someone’s inward character from their outward appearance. For example, someone with a high forehead might be willful, someone with big eyes might be innocent, or someone with a long nose might be patient. This is generally assessed solely at the level of the individual, without regard to their ancestry. Face reading is both ancient and widespread, having emerged independently in Europe, Arabia, India, China, and elsewhere over thousands of years. It features among its acolytes such varied intellectuals as Polemon, Aristotle, ibn Arabi, Chaucer, Dickens, and Poe.

So now that we have established our basic terminology, we can begin to discuss the relation between the two concepts. In face reading, there are generally two schools of thought as to how race relates to someone’s face and physiognomy. The first seeks to use the principles of face reading to assess the collective character of different people groups. For example, people of African descent tend to have eyes that protrude more, while people of European descent tend to have more deep-set eyes. In face reading, protruding eyes stand for a talkative, sociable, and outspoken person, whereas deep-set eyes stand for a withdrawn, calculating, and reserved person. Thus, a believer in this idea would conclude that Africans are, on average, more talkative and sociable, whereas Europeans are, on average, more calculating and reserved. The action mechanism in such a case is debatable – perhaps the genes and/or hormones that control eye depth are also involved with talkativeness within the brain, or perhaps environment coincidentally created both traits at once, the harsh and cold environment of Europe causing its inhabitants to develop both deep-set eyes and reserved personalities.

The second school of thought in face reading, the one I follow, seeks to use race and phenotype in order to determine a racial average for a person’s facial features. For example, the specific length or proportion of nose that would constitute a “long nose” would differ between a person of European or African ancestry. Let us then take two individuals, one of European descent, and one of African descent. We look at their noses and see that they are roughly the same length. Despite this, we might assess the European man as having a “short” nose (that is, relative to the European average), meaning that he is quick and action-oriented, and the African man as having a “long” nose (again, relative to the African average), meaning that he is thoughtful and contemplative. We could apply the same principle to any number of other features.

There are many other examples of this phenomenon, which is why possessing a deep and dynamic knowledge about race and phenotype is a very necessary tool in any physiognomist’s arsenal. One must be able to quickly, accurately, and precisely determine a person’s ancestry from their appearance alone, and to a degree unheard of in the modern day. Modern categories are utterly insufficient and betray the intellectual impoverishment of their users. Blanket terms like “White” or “Black” are not nearly enough. As a face reader, how can you ever hope to determine what, for example, a lady’s nose might say about her character, if you so lazily toss short-nosed Alpinid, medium-nosed Nordid, and long-nosed Dinarid into the same wastebasket taxon of “White” or “Caucasian?” Such a task is impossible without the proper training.

But there is hope for such lost souls. I will continue to post to this blog, to my Twitter, and to my TikTok, and will be launching a YouTube channel in due time. You can learn about both face reading and human phenotypes on all of these platforms. And for those who seek to truly know and understand themselves, or who wish to become professional physiognomists or phenotypic ethnologists of their own, you can check out our Services page and schedule a full analysis or even a live consultation today.

Race and physiognomy don’t have to be battlegrounds. They’re tools for understanding ourselves and others, bridging the outer and inner worlds. What’s your face telling you? Let’s find out together.