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Eyebrows May Help You Spot A Narcissist

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS Local) -- Thicker, denser, more distinct eyebrows may reveal a lot about a person's psyche.

According to new research published in the Journal of Personality, it turns out that maintaining distinctively thick and well-groomed eyebrows are more likely to be the brows of narcissists than their thinner-eyebrow counterparts.

The study, called "Eyebrows Cue Grandiose Narcissism," was conducted by taking facial photographs of volunteers who had taken a test called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, which is used to measure a person's personality on the scale of subclinical to grandiose narcissism.

They then cropped the photographs so that only the independent coders could rate the eyebrows on a series of qualities, including grooming, distinctiveness and femininity.

From there, they correlated eyebrow ratings to participants' self-reported narcissism and found that the more distinctive the eyebrow, the higher the score for grandiosity.

So what's the connection between thick eyebrows and narcissism? Researchers believe it comes from a desire to be aesthetically unique and recognizable.

"Eyebrows facilitate facial recognition," Giacomin, one of two authors of the study, told The Independent. "Narcissists may maintain distinct, thick, and dense brows to enhance recognition, which they are motivated to attain," she explained.

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