Dear Tim and Holmesians,

I don't find that very surprising. Haven't we often read about murderers
having baby faces or looking exactly the opposite of our popular conception of
criminals or as portrayed in books and movies up until just a few years back?

A recent Kamal Hassan movie called "Anbe Sivam" enforces the same point,
though a bit more humorously. The main hero, who has a scar on his face from an
accident, is mistaken by the other other to be a criminal. Of course, nothing is
further from the truth.


Sridhar

Tim Symonds <tim.symonds@...> wrote:
Following the discussion of phrenology and the canon, I watched a
television programme this past week which gave a brief history of people's
attempts to discern character (or lack of character, i.e. criminal
tendencies) from people's faces - the beetling brow, the close-set eyes etc.
One experimenter quite early in the 20th Century assembled a good number of
'mug shots' (photos of faces) of people convicted for criminal behaviour,
and he merged them all together to try to get a composite 'criminal' face.
To his surprise, and the surprise of others since, when a few dozen photos
are merged, the features which seem exaggerated in the individual form a
rather pleasing appearance and not a so-called criminal face at all.

Tim

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