WEBVTT - The Science of Beards 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to stuff to Glow your Mind from how stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:13.680 works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to bow your mind. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.320 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas, and 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.840 we both have full beards today. But but but I 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:22.400 fear that we may have gone too far. Yeah, it's possible. 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:24.599 I mean, we got all excited about growing them out, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.440 at least I did, worked online for months only to 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.760 find out that quote scientists warn we've hit peak beard. 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.920 The more people grow facial hair, the less attractive it is. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.800 What are you talking about? In a very straightforward way, 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:39.440 this would seem to just to be a matter of 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:42.519 beards are unique and cool until everyone has them, and 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.640 then a clean shaven face is unique and weird. Well, 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.040 let's just yeah, a clean shaven face is weird kind 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.800 of right. Anyway, this topic brought up beards again with us, 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.400 and we thought, hey, let's go ahead and replay our 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:01.600 episode on beard, the merits of them, the demerits of them, 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.680 and why they may be important enough this fight. Yeah, 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:06.560 because we have a lot of bearded individuals out there, 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.000 you might be thinking about shaving that beard. I think 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:16.880 twice about it, and listening to this episode Julie named 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.480 for me your favorite beards, and then the world out 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:24.000 there of bearded faces, which which one's called you the most? 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.240 You mean the wearer of it? No, I'm just saying 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:29.920 like beards that you I mean. I guess it's hard 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:31.679 to have you separate the wearer from the beard. How 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:33.679 do you separate the beard from the bearded? I don't know. 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.760 I'm staring at our producer right now, Noel, who has 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.240 a wonderful beard? Does? It's a good beard, It's a 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:44.280 friendly beard. It's it's a coron. That was an awful 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.080 pronunciation of very current. Um, it's a good it's a 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.880 solid beard. But you know, one of my favorite beards 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.600 of all time, all pretty gray. Yes, this is the 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.680 biogere intologence. Yes, he has a straight, straight up wizard beard, 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:00.600 a long beer that you look at it and you're like, 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:02.560 this is a man with with wisdom. This is a 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.960 man um of experience that I can trust to help 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.680 me live forever. Yeah, And you know what I kind 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.440 of had wondered. You know, I think I made a 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.160 comment before in another episode when we were discussing some 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:19.000 of his ideas about living forever. Um. You know, there 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:20.760 was this idea of, well, if he shaved his beard, 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.079 would he look twenty years old or would he look 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.480 a hundred and twenty. I don't know. There's that much 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:27.640 facial hair going on. Yeah, and off the top of 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.400 my head, I don't know how old he is either, 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.520 so you can't even factor that into it. No, But 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:35.640 after sort of looking at some of this research, I 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.760 have a new view of Opportugray that I will discuss 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:40.840 later on in the podcast because I don't want to 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.640 give anything away. Okay, um, it's interesting you sent this 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.560 um this infographic around the trustworthiness of beards that ranks 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.440 all these varying degrees of beards from from the very 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.080 trustworthy to the disastrous, and there's there's like a dozen 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.639 of them on here, and uh, on the far end 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.400 of the very trustworthy s we have like to the 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.080 two beards that are closest to the end. One basically 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.040 looks like Noel's beard and the other one looks like 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.720 Aubrey do Gray's beard. If you go on the other 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.040 end of the spectrum, then you have to encounter a 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:18.160 hitler mustache and a pencil thin mustache. Say the pencil 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.239 fan always says Villain to me or John Water. I 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.640 don't think of John Waters as a villain. Well, I 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.160 think a benevolent villain. I think he would would term 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:30.160 himself at you know, possibly possibly he's a provocateur. But 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.840 also funny on this particular infographic is that the the 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:38.560 Hitler mustache and the John Waters mustache right below that 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:43.839 is a full werewolf. So I'm glad that hyperdricosis made 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.800 the list. Yeah. Um, and I'll tell you one beard. 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:49.560 There's so many great beards out there, um, so many 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.400 great beards from science history alone, which I'm hoping we'll 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.240 do a little gallery to go with this online. Now 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:58.680 I have to mention before we launch into beards and 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.520 we really look at the science find them, um, that 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.600 I feel like, in part we should owe this episode 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:10.440 to your own facial hair. Yes, oh, the sideburns. Burns, 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.400 You've got nice chops there. Yeah, well let's they go 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.240 from the sideburn level to the chocolate which I was 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:18.279 I was looking at where those rank on this particular 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:23.320 trustworthiness of beards, and certainly the chops that the chops 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.040 are a little more in the neutral zone, whereas the 0:04:26.320 --> 0:04:29.760 sideburns are are a little more towards the trustworthy side. 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.200 So if I can actually go buy anything that this 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.680 infograph has to say about the matter. Well, just as 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:40.080 a side note, you have a great photo gallery sideburns 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.159 of science, sideburns of science. Yeah, I'm thinking we'll do 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.760 one about beards as well to go with this episode. 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:47.760 One beard that I that I am seeing a lot 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.320 of recently because I'm watching um the current season of 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:54.200 Madman is the actor who plays the character stand j R. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.720 Ferguson has this huge beard. I don't know if you're 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.520 up to that point. Yeah, and so illustrator, the illustrator 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:04.320 massive beard, and uh I was looking up I found 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.160 an interview with him and he says that when he 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.719 after he came in, um, you know, ready to do 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:10.720 the show, grew out this beard that they wanted him 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.359 to have for this season. He said it was actually 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.520 a bit too much. It was like a cross between 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.120 Jeremiah Johnson and Tom hankson Castaway, and they actually had 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.840 to trim it down to its to the state that 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.560 you see it in on that So so virile was 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:28.479 his beard. Yeah, I had to tame it back. You 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:30.640 know what's interesting about that, and we'll get into this, 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.919 is that as a character. He he usually says some 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:39.000 pretty loudish things, like loudish like um, you know, he 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:44.760 says some inappropriate things, sexually charged, now clean shaven, super creepy. 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.680 But the beard I actually think softened that a bit. Yeah, 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.440 I think you're right. Yeah, because yeah, he's he's a 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.320 far more lovable character with the beard. Well, also you 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.240 see a little bit more character development of him my 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.880 fields the show progresses, so you know him a little 0:05:57.880 --> 0:05:59.919 better by the time as the beard. But yeah, like 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.200 earlier on you're like, who is this this guy's guy's 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:03.840 kind of awful, and now you're like, this is one 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.600 of the better gentlemen in the office. Yeah, you're right, 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.960 this guy's got personality. Yeah, and he I guess it's 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.159 the only I can't think of any of other characters 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:12.719 that current that are currently on the show that have 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:14.719 a beard. So no, but there is a lot of 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:18.080 facial hair going on for sure. No, let's look back 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.280 here in the time machine ancient Greece, where the beard 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.680 was big, right, it was a sign of virility, and 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.240 it was an advertisement that you were not a Unich. Yes, 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.120 because presumably or this was the thought actually that if 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.400 you were a Unich you wouldn't have the ability, would 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.320 not have the hormones to produce that the massive glorious 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:43.080 beards on your wisdom. And certainly in olden days, various 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:45.720 societies this was there were enough Unix around that this 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.800 was actually something to think about. There were actually a 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.880 fair number of units playing varying roles in society, sometimes 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.160 very important roles. Um. Which reminds me we do need 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.080 to do an episode on Unix. Was that because the 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.119 history of Unix and some of the science of Unix 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:05.320 is is really, um, really fascinating. Um. But yeah, yeah, 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:07.800 go back to the Greeks. The Greeks loved them, at 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.440 least until Alexander the Great came along and he said, actually, 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:13.960 we don't need beards. We need to shave these beards 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.480 off if we're going into combat, because somebody could grab 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:21.000 me by my beard and start slicing at my face exactly. 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.160 And I imagine that at some point too, if you 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.160 are in a situation where you don't have access to 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.520 clean water and so want and so forth, that that 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.800 little beard could get quite contested. Yeah. And certainly we've 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.360 been shaving beards for a while. Um. I mean we 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.280 well before we were shaving beards presumably we're you know, 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.680 there were situations where one would pluck out the facial hair, 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.679 especially if you if you weren't stay capable of growing 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.760 like a full beard anyway, maybe you just decided to 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.200 go clean cut on it and you would be you 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.160 would have to to plug at the hairs or find 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.600 out some of their method. But we have found archaeological 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:00.280 evidence dating back to one thousand BC of endo edual 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:04.040 shaving their beards clearly with some sort of flint instruments, 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.800 so you know, the first razors if you will. Indeed, um, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.800 it should not go unnoted that bearded ladies make appearances 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:15.600 throughout history, right um. I wanted to point out that 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:18.040 some of this is due to something called hair sudism, 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.120 which is a variant of hypertrocosis also known as the 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.840 werewolf syndrome, when there's an abnormal amount of hair growth 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.320 on the body. Uh, though with hair sudism, it's usually 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:32.160 due to increased levels of androgens or male hormones. Now, 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.200 bearded ladies would show up in sideshow acts in the circus, right, 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.840 or freak shows as they were called. Most of the time, 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.040 those weren't actually ladies. They were just dudes to put 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:44.480 on a little with beards that put on a little 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.040 makeup and address. Yeah, but that's been going on since 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.520 Shakespeare's time, right, no ladies on the stage. Um. I 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.360 also want to point out the cultural significance of the 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:59.040 term beard, which is also slang for um, A person 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.000 who is a cover for a gay friend or a partner. Yes, 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.000 and apparently sometimes too, it would be a cover for 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:10.559 somebody who's having an affair in a mixed gender situation 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.480 as well. Yeah. Yeah, although I would say that the 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.840 actually i've heard it more used as a way to 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.880 sort of negate someone's homosexuality in public. Feel like that's 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.640 the usage that sticks with us more these days. Yeah, 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:26.160 it's sort of this idea that you could give this 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.440 heteronorm appearance of a couple knowing that one of them 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:33.600 was gay the other was not. Um, But I do 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:37.559 I think it's fascinating because the term, again, when you're 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.959 talking about heteronorms, you talk about masculinity. And in the 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.000 instance where there is a male who is gay who 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:48.600 is with a woman, she the beard gives him masculinity. 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.160 I'm not saying that she gives him real masculinity. I'm 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:56.720 saying that from society's perspective, she's imbuing him with this power. 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.920 But it always makes me anytime or the term beard 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.120 used in those scenarios, it makes me think of money. 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.480 Python's the Life of Brian where there's a scene where 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.920 someone someone's going to be stoned to death and punishment 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.200 for some sort of infraction, and and only the men 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.920 are allowed to come and witness this, but only the 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.719 women are really interested in attending it. So they're all 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.440 buying these fake beards from a vendor outside the stoning area, 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:28.040 and uh, and they're all, you know, there to participate. 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.040 I love that bit because on so many different levels, 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.439 I think it's a commentary and society is. It's some 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.280 wonderful commentary thrown in to what is still a very 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.720 silly sketch. But that's a Python for you. All right, Well, 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.400 let's talk a bit about the evolution of the beard 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:46.520 and this sort of powers I said that is imbued 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:50.120 by this mass official hair. So needless to say, the 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.520 beard grows on the face. And it's really interesting when 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.800 you start thinking about the face. What is the human face? Right? 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.920 Because certainly it is a bunch of skull meat. It 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.160 is uh, it's a place where we keep our eyes, 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.719 in our nose, in our mouth. So it's it's kind 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.680 of this uh, frontloaded sensory array that allows us to 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.360 take in the sense world around us. But then it 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.000 is also something a bit more too, It is also 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.959 a communications array. Now, all this is complicated by the 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:21.679 fact that, of course we end up thinking of our 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.120 face as ourselves, right, like I am my face to 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.240 a certain extent, or at least my face is an 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.240 expression of who I am. Or you're saying that some 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.640 people allow how they look to color their personality. Well, 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.840 people end up augmenting their face and to varying degrees. 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.680 And the varying degrees may include, um, growing a beard, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.920 it may mean wearing makeup. It may mean piercings, it 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.880 may mean tattoos, it may mean cosmetic surgery. All of 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:49.560 these things are done because we see the faces an 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:51.920 expression of who we are. But then the but then 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.240 it's also tied in with the fact that the faces 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:58.000 a means of communicating. Um. Obviously, we make expressions. There 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:03.040 seven primary expressions and then various um micro expressions that 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.480 appear for just you know, fractions of a second, and 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:08.400 some of the best. Yeah, that allow you to get 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:10.600 gain some insight into what's going on, what emotions are 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.000 we feeling, what emotions are recovering. And there's actually a 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:17.200 two thousand and eight check study that found that facial 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:22.280 expressions alone can speak a thousand words. So we get 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.680 into this idea of the face is not just you 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.280 know who we are, but but a means of communicating 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.000 with other members of our society. And uh. And so 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.480 there was another study that I found that plays into this, 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:37.240 and this is a two thousand twelve study from a 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.680 team of U. C L a biologist, and they started 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:41.440 thinking about the evolution of the human face and the 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.160 evolution of the primate face and and how does facial 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.760 diversity um factor into all of this. So they looked 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.720 at a hundred and twenty nine different adult male primates 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.880 from Central and South America. And the study included this 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:55.959 great wheel that that graph that had all these different 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:59.319 to monkey faces on it, and they ranged, uh pretty wildly. 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.920 There's you know, there there are some very conservative looking 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:03.760 monkey faces that it's just like, oh, well that is 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:05.240 that is a monkey. If you saw a picture of 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.000 you be like, well, look at that monkey. There is 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:11.440 and then others are you know, like crazy red faced, mustachioed, 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:16.319 you know, crazy eyebrow like you know, crazy monkey pictures. Yeah, 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:20.280 like very like punk rock monkeys. And so you would 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:22.480 look at these and if you look at these thinking, um, 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.360 all right, some of these monkeys are gonna be more 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.880 solitary than others, and some are gonna be a little 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:29.520 more society driven, a little more you know, social and 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.080 prone to live in in packs and small groups. Um. 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:37.000 And so what is the correlation between facial complexity uh 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.160 and uh and in social activity? As it turns out, 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.360 the crazier the face on the primates in this study, 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.600 the more solitary the monkey, whereas the planer faced monkeys 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.520 were more likely to live in in some sort of 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.400 a close knit society and in a group of some 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:57.120 courts sort. And so the theory here is that since 0:13:57.320 --> 0:13:59.920 our face is the communications of race, since our faces 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.640 means of communicating with other members of our species, the 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.320 plane or the faces, the better the communication system. It's 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.800 in a large community, yeah, it's like, you know, this 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:12.000 is the poster that I'm going to use, or you know, 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:13.760 this is the billboard I'm going to use to communicate 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:17.240 with people, and the more graffiti I have on it, 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:18.920 the you know, I have drapes up on it and 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:20.800 all sorts of crazy stuff. It's it's getting in the 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.760 way of my ability to use that to communicate the clearest. 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.520 So that the crazy faces they're standing on their own 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.120 because they don't have to to use this. But the 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.200 planer faced monkeys, they're using this as a communication system. 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.640 And it's like a like a satellite dish. If you 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:36.200 want to pick up a signal, you want to have 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:37.600 it cleaned off. You don't wanta have a bunch of 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.600 brush on it and drying clothes and what have you. Yeah, 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:42.080 it makes total sense because if you are in a 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.880 large community and you've got to read each other's facial expressions, 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:48.160 than the plane or the face the easier to read. 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.280 But if you are just hanging out with one or 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:52.200 two people, not a big deal. If you put on 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:57.880 as much of the makeup exactly nature's makeup as possible. UM, 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.520 I do you think it's really interesting in the human context, 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:08.360 because conservative estimates say that UM communication is perceived by 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:13.200 up I think upboards of six of nonverbal cues. Okay, 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.840 so it would make sense that whatever is crossing your 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.440 face is really going to inform another person about how 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.840 you feel, and particularly when you blush. I just looked 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.120 at some research on blushing, and it turns out that 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.080 the way that our vision is constructed, the cones in 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.720 our eyes they think, Uh, scientists and researchers think that 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:35.240 it was constructed in a way that we could really 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.680 see the variances in skin color and humans, so that 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:43.000 we could perceive things like blushing as a subtle way 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:46.760 of saying, oh this, you know, the person um across 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.400 from me feels ashamed about this or regretful for doing something. 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.240 And again this plays into this idea of nonverbal cues 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:57.680 letting us know what is truly going on between humans. 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.480 So what does always have to do with facial hair? Well, 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.200 if you dress up this canvas that you display your emotions, 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.560 you are certainly trying to say something with your beard, 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.400 or rather there are some subconscious things going on with 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:14.800 the beard. Well, to a certain extent, you're growing a mask. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.720 You're growing this thing out of your face that covers 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.720 up uh, you know, at least like half your face. 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.520 It's so it's it's it can be used as a 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:28.120 means of masking what you're actually feeling well, And I 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:32.160 like this idea of UH putting on a mask of 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.440 power to write. And if you look at the writings 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.760 of Barnaby J. Dixon, he's a postdoctoral researcher in the 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.520 Evolution and Ecology Research Center at the University of New 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.640 South Wales. He has a lot to say on this topic. Um. 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.160 He has a couple of different studies out right now. 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:50.400 And in fact, if you go to his website, he's 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:52.680 Dixon with a s by the way, d I X 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:54.920 S O N to see himself of a beard. Yes, 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.280 and he go to his website, not only will you 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.120 see his glorious beard, which is um, you're not did 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.880 with a mustache, by the way, you will also be 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.600 able to participate in a couple of online studies and 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.960 see some images of people with beards or men with 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.240 beards and then without beards, and go through the process 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.880 of rating them on their attractiveness. So let me get 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.119 back to Barnaby though Uh. In the paper published in 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:25.600 Behavioral Ecology quote beards augment perceptions of men's age, social steps, 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:30.560 and aggressiveness, but not attractiveness. Dixon and Paul L. Vacy 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:32.679 take a look at the power and structure of vis 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.919 via beard. And in the abstract he says, or they say, 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.119 Darwin positive that beards evolved in human ancestors via female 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:44.640 choice is a highly attractive masculine adornment. This is Darwin's theory. Yes, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.080 this is they're saying. You know, Darwin put this out there, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.080 who himself had a big beard later in life, after 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:54.600 earlier in life having glorious beard. But they go on 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.760 to say that they think it's not necessarily um an 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:01.359 element of attractiveness. Here is more of power. And he 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.760 said that they show that women from two very different 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.520 ethnic groups a group of women um that are Europeans 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.000 from New Zealand and Polynesian women from Samoa, they don't 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.200 rate bearded faces as more attractive than clean shaven faces. 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:18.840 In fact, women from both of those groups judge bearded 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.040 faces to be older and ascribe them higher social status 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.160 than men who are clean shaven. Yeah. I mean, of course, 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:26.320 one of the things with all this, you have to 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.280 take into account all the human complexity of any of this. 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:31.600 You know, if you're in a society where the beard 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.800 is more important and more established, and you know that's 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.760 gonna that's gonna weigh weigh in on things. Uh. But 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.440 but most of the the studies that we were looking 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.280 at here, they were we were seeing that the beard 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:47.239 has a stronger role in intra sexual signaling than in 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.520 any kind of female mate preferences. And in other words, guys, 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.920 you're growing that beard because you have something to say 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.359 to the other guys, not because or you know, you 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:58.760 may you may think otherwise, but ultimately your beard is 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.240 speaking to the other men. Well, and what's interesting about 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.760 the Polynesian women and the women from New Zealand is 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.360 that they then saw that men who were acting aggressively 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:09.560 with beards were deemed to be more aggressive than the 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.480 clean shaven brethren. So there's this idea again that it's 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.520 a sort of a sort of suiting up, a manning 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:20.520 up and again assuming a power roll. And if you 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:24.080 look at a paper by D. Carolyn Blanchard which was 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:28.040 published in Behavioral Neuroscience, um, you begin to see the 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.719 animal world being pulled in in the form of lions 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:34.240 in their means. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. This was 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.120 an interesting study that you came across. And the idea here, 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.840 the theory here is that all right, so why does 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:42.680 the lion have a main because it looks cool because 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.240 it's since the signal. Or does the lion have the 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:49.520 main because all of this extra hair protects some some 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:54.080 some very important parts of the neck and face. True, 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:58.160 and she says that lions with prominent means are like 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.159 men with beards, with the ideas that both began to 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:03.840 grow facial hair at puberty. Both the main and the 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:08.160 beard helped the single out gender in a crowd. And um, yes, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.080 the beard, like the main, would give the wear a 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:16.120 more imposing silhouette and serve to blunt any attacks. Yeah, 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.000 because one thing you have to to think about here too, 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.080 if this theory holds up, you have to think about 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:25.639 the way humans have evolved. Um, what are natural weapons? 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.280 Are natural weapons? Are fists? The first things we're using 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.199 to hurt each other, you know, aside from you know, 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.639 the the odd bite and maybe you know, you know, 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:35.040 at some point someone relies. Hey, we can kick things too, 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.639 but for the most part, we our hands have evolved 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:39.960 to punch people in the face. I did a blog 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:41.919 in a video about this a while back, and the 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.239 idea is that when you make a fist, and and 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.040 certainly we are the only species that makes fists and 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:51.280 punches other members of our species, or if you're Lia Nissa, 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.520 maybe a wolf with your with your fist. When you 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:56.879 make a fist, it's uh, you know, certainly you can 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.960 hurt your hand still when you you know, make contact, 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:04.080 but it's structured so that you're actually protecting a lot 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:08.359 of the more fragile parts of the hand, the bones 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.560 and muscles when when you ball up. So the idea 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:13.920 here is that that we have we've evolved over time 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.560