Smile! You’re on Psyche Camera!

My dad has a knack for finding spiritual application to sometimes odd news reports. This new development still has me scratching my  head — though not, perhaps, as much as the image of Ananias and Sapphira on Facebook.

– by Paul Willingham

Back in the 80s when I was in business in South Dakota, I attended a 2 day marketing seminar for CPAs.  One of the things that the instructor stressed was that you needed to be able to identify, as much as possible, the personality of your client or potential client.  He pointed out that each person has these visible personality traits that, when identified, would help tailor the sales pitch to “sell” or close the deal.  Some might call it manipulation but that’s a discussion for another time.

After explaining that each one of us fit more or less into one of four groups, he explained how to identify and pigeon hole a person by being sensitive to these visible traits.   Before we broke for lunch that first day, he had assessed each of the participants.  What was worse, he shared those assessments with the class and we all were surprised, chagrined and perhaps embarrassed at how accurate he was.  One of our assignments was to go out to the Mall after supper, people watch, and then try to identify which one of the four groups passersby belonged to.  It was surprising to me how much you could tell about a person by paying attention and looking for the telltale traits.

Well, new research suggests that you don’t even have to see the person in the flesh.  You can make these personality assessments by looking a photograph.  No more staring at people at the Mall and encouraging Mall Security to ask you to move on.  No more sitting in the lobby of a potential client’s office, hoping to catch a glimpse of your marketing target so you can customize your sales pitch to fit his or her personality.

Psychology researchers from the University of Texas, Cambridge University and the University of California-Berkley, in a joint study, have found that a lot can be learned about a person from a photograph. The study revealed that people can draw accurate conclusions about your personality, such as how extroverted you are, from a single photograph.  And when the photo is spontaneous and unposed, it can reveal a virtual personality profile; how easygoing you are, how open you are to new experiences, even your political orientation and how religious you are.  Of the ten personality traits that were used and identified in the study, the one trait that was most difficult to accurately assess, was how conscientious a person was.

For most of us, our intuition is that you need to get to know someone before you can know anything about their personality.  “But I think it’s pretty amazing how many traits you can pick up from a photograph.  You are not led in the wrong direction by physical appearance”, says Washington University psychologist, Simine Vazier, who took part in the study.  That’s pretty scary.  We may be speaking with someone and trying to impress them by laying it on pretty thick and the listener is saying to himself, “liar, liar”.

As some public figures have learned, it is difficult to be anonymous anymore.  What with security cameras everywhere, cell phone cameras, the internet, Facebook and its competitors, you really cannot hide.  Now couple that with the ability to profile a person by studying a photograph and we are exposed to the world with absolutely no place to hide.  It is somewhat akin to the new airport security cameras that can see through clothing.   Perhaps eHarmony has it wrong after all, and all you do really need is a picture and a photograph when looking for a relationship. And for the profilers on the television drama Criminal Minds, their job just got easier.

Going forward, your Facebook bio will have to contain much less embellishment if it is going to match your photo.  You could omit the photo but then the reader is going to ask, “What is he or she trying to hide?”  If you want to confuse someone trying to pin down your personality from a photo, I suggest giving them your driver’s license photo.

For the Christian, it means that our lives must be an open book.  Our “profile” must match what we say we are.  We never could hide from God but now it is even difficult to hide from those around us.  No more anonymity.  I wonder what the fate of Ananias and Sapphira would have been had they known that their fellow Christians had studied their photographs.

One of the visible characteristics of the early Christians was how they loved one another.  Their contemporaries saw that they followed up their convictions with action.  They matched their photos.  Today, we need to be all that God wants us to be.  The world is constantly looking for the chink in the armor of our Christian faith so that they can cry ‘hypocrite’.  And now they have another weapon.  Never was the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words” more apropos.  If a photograph can reveal who we really are, then I’m convinced we need to begin to work on being a lot better than our photo.

The Apostle Paul admonished the Christians at Colossae:

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  And above all put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  (Colossians 3:12, 14-17)

Now that’s a recipe for a perfect, sharply focused picture every time.

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About Paul: My dad is a retired CPA living in the Twin Cities with my amazing mom. He is granddad to three boys and five girls and is an occasional golfer, skilled carpenter, accomplished handyman and master chef. He gets together with his 101-year old dad each week to work out their latest life-enhancing contraptions and home improvement projects. It goes without saying (even though I’m saying it) that my dad and mom follow Jesus well. See other posts from my dad here.