Physiognomy, the art of reading a person’s character from the face, dates back to the Ancient Greeks. The philosopher Aristotle regarded people whose noses have thick, bulbous ends as insensitive and swinish, while those with sharp-tipped noses were easily provoked and “dog-like”.

The theory was popularised in the 18th century by a Swiss pastor, Johann Kaspar Lavater, and later had an influence on the novelists Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens. Fagin, for example, had a “villainous-looking and repulsive face”, and Scrooge sported a “nipped pointed nose”, “shrivelled cheeks” and a “wiry chin” that betrayed his miserly qualities.

The idea was developed by Franz Joseph Gall into a supposedly more scientific discipline known as phrenology, which purported to judge character from the shape of the head, particularly the bumps and fissures of the skull. It grew out of the idea that as different areas of the brain control different functions these will vary in size according to a person’s nature, and can be traced on the skull. Gall believed that the brain was made up of about 30 individual parts or “organs” that created personality.

At the height of its popularity, phrenology was used to predict a person’s future, to judge job applicants and to assess potential marriage partners. There was even a reputable phrenological journal.

Phrenologists were commonly used in criminology, claiming to be able to predict criminal tendencies. They believed that crime was caused by disordered faculties such as greed, aggression and confrontationalism. Gall even described a murder “organ” that was pronounced only in killers.

Phrenologists would run their palms and fingers over the skulls of suspected criminals feeling carefully for grooves or enlargements, and measure different planes of the skulls to make their diagnoses.

In the 20th century, more and more scientific evidence was presented to discredit physiognomy and phrenology and both fell from academic favour. They also suffered from their popularity among Nazis.

There is, however, some reputable evidence that facial features can be accurate clues to personality and health. The male hormone testosterone, for example, is known to shape the face, building broader, longer noses and more prominent jawlines and brows, as well as increasing aggression.

Studies have suggested that people tend to judge male faces as more or less aggressive depending on these features. Most people probably practise a form of physiognomy daily, as they use faces to assess the personalities of people they meet for the first time.

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