IS THiS TRUE ABOUT HOW PEOPLE DEVELOP???

Question

is it true that the way you act growing up as a child, as in your mood & how you feel, helps shape what you look like as you develop. As in people's facial appearance is dictated by how they feel as they develop from childhood?

I heard this because people's lives constantly undergo evolution, as their bodies & faces & minds evolve throughout their life. The theory of evolutuion suggests that appearance is based on what helps you survive & be the best fit for you to stay alive (as with every species) so does this suggest for example that if you grow up with an outgoing, funny and light mood/personality, your face will fit that look (& not look like someone who never talks) because your face evolved based on what your mood was?? or for instance if you are upset & pouted a lot, you might have a softer face & mouth that is in a frowning, pouting position??

Any know if this is true, or is everything about your looks determined by your DNA? Kinda like nature v nurture i guess

Answer 1

I believe you are correct ... but there is a problem with your use of the word "evolve." In biology, individuals do not evolve. Groups (species) evolve.

There is an everyday use of the word "evolve" to mean a slow progressive change, and we can apply this to anything. For example, you can indeed say that "my political beliefs have evolved over my lifetime." or "my outlook on life has evolved since I was a child", and so yes, in everyday speech we can say that our bodies, and faces, and minds "evolve" through their life.

But in the science of biology, the word "evolve" has a very specific meaning. It refers to the slow change in the characteristics of a *species* over time. So when you referred to the theory of evolution, that's when you confused the everyday use of the word "evolution" with the specific, biological sciences use of the word "evolution."

The reason this is important is that the biological theory of evolution is concerned with explaining the existence of all the species of life forms on the earth. It was first unclear whether the development of an individual during its lifetime could affect the development of the species (a view now called Lamarckism) ... but it is now considered settled that the two are NOT related. An individual is born and dies with the same DNA. What happens to an individual during its lifetime, dies with that individual.

Incidentally, Charles Darwin did not like the the word "evolution." He preferred the term "descent with modification" ... but "evolution" won out.

All that said, I agree with you. A person's mind obviously is more a factor of their experiences during their life than DNA. And a person's body and face, while mostly determined by DNA, is nevertheless partly shaped by experiences and outlook. And this is more than just laugh-lines and wrinkles ... a face used to a lifetime of smiling will have a very different muscles developed and will produce a different smile than the same face used to a lifetime of frowning and worrying. I don't know of any studies of this, but I would believe that two biologically identical twins, separated at birth, and who lead very different lives, will grow to have very noticeable differences in appearance.

For a really interesting look at this, watch the movie "Adaptation". There are many plays on the title of the movie ... from biological adaptation, to human adaptation, to the plot surrounding the adaptation of a novel into a screenplay. But in that movie, Nicholas Cage plays a pair of identical twins. The two brothers are roommates, but they have such a profoundly different outlook on life (one sunny and friendly, the other anxious and neurotic) that you can see the differences in appearance. If an actor can do that in the course of doing a movie, imagine what a lifetime of such attitude differences can do!

Answer 2

While people 'wear' their skin, that isn't biological evolution.

People may put lines and such on their faces because of their habitual moods, but it might just as easily work in the opposite direction.

If people are nice to you because you look like you are nice, odds are you will be inclined to conform to that genial expectation.

If people are mean to you because you look mean, odds are you will become misanthropic and eventually conform to their expectations because of the way you are mistreated.

Individuals don't evolve, they just grow up and grow old. Evolution is achieved in populations over time in response to selective pressures. Pressures that raise or lower the chances for individuals to reproduce depending on characteristics of anatomy and behavior.

Mood is too transitory to have any real effect, by the time mood etches its effects on faces people have already had their children, so it has no substantial effect on the course of evolution

Answer 3

There is a natural cause for your face to take the shape of your mood.

As you smile, you stretch your skin and tighten your muscles in a certain way. As you frown, your face also takes on that shape. Over a very long period of time, if your face is typically taking one shape vs. another you will develop wrinkles and muscle tone to suggest you are typically happy or unhappy depending upon how you have conditioned your face.

This is the same thing with smokers, who get those pucker wrinkles across their upper lip. If you see those wrinkles on someone you can tell that they are (or have been) a smoker.

Answer 4

It's true for everyone except those who don't use Check Spelling, write their question in capitals and over use question marks.

Answer 5

Yes.