WEBVTT - The Science of Beards 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:13.640 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.400 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.240 named for me. Your favorite beards. And in the world 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.280 out there of bearded faces, which which one's called you 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.840 the most? You mean the wearer of it? No, I'm 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:29.440 just saying, like beards that you I mean. I guess 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:31.520 it's harder. How do you separate the wearer from the beard? 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:33.360 How do you separate the beard from the bearded? I 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:35.840 don't know. I'm staring at our producer right now, Noel, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.120 who has a wonderful beard. It's a good beard. It's 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.879 a friendly beard. It's it's a coron. That was an 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.959 awful pronunciation of very current. Um, it's a good it's 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.560 a solid beard. But you know one of my favorite 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.480 beerds of all time, a pretty gray Yes, this is 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.920 the biogere intelligence. Yes, he has a straight, straight up 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:00.200 wizard beard, a long beer that you look at it 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.120 and you're like, this is a man with with wisdom. 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.720 This is a man um of experience that I can 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.640 trust to help me live forever. Yeah, And you know 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:11.040 what I kind of had wondered. You know, I think 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.320 I made a comment before in another episode when we 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:18.280 were discussing some of his ideas about living forever um. 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:20.040 You know, there was this idea of, well, if he 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.440 shaved his beard, would he look twenty years old or 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:24.600 would he look a hundred and twenty. I don't know 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.360 there's that much facial hair going on, Yeah enough to 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:29.360 him my head. I don't know how old he is either, 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.520 so you can't even factor that into it. No, But 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.600 after sort of looking at some of this research, I 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.720 have a new view of Arportugray that I will discuss 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:40.800 later on in the podcast because I don't want to 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:44.600 give anything away. Okay, UM, it's interesting you sent this 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.560 um this infographic around the trustworthiness of beards that ranks 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:52.400 all these varying degrees of beards from from the very 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:56.040 trustworthy to be disastrous. And there's there's like a dozen 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.640 of them on here, and uh, on the far end 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.400 of the very trustworthy scape, we have like to the 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.120 two beards that are closest to the end. One basically 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:06.000 looks like Noel's beard and the other one looks like 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.960 Aubrey grays beer. If you go on the other end 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.040 of the spectrum, then you have to encounter a Hitler 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:18.359 mustache and a pencil fin mustache. Say that pencil fan 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.400 always says villain to me or John Water. I don't 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:23.760 think of John Waters as a villain. Well, I think 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.600 a benevolent villain. I think he would would term himself 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.520 at you know, possibly possibly he's a provocateur. But also 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.680 funny on this particular infographic is that the the Hitler 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.760 mustache and the John Waters mustache right below that is 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:45.360 a full werewolf. So I'm glad that hyperdricosis made the list. Yeah. Um, 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:47.639 and I'll tell you one beerd There's so many great 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.520 beards out there, um, so many great beards from science 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:54.240 history alone, which I'm hoping we'll do a little gallery 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.960 to go with this online. Now I have to mention 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.360 before we launch into beer and we really look at 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.400 the science be find them. Um that I feel like, 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.800 in part we should owe this episode to your own 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:11.280 facial hair. Yes, oh the sideburns, burns, You've got nice 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.280 chops there. Yeah, well let's they go from the sideburn 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:16.720 level to the chocolate which I was I was looking 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.960 at where those rank on this particular trustworthiness of beards 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.679 and certainly the chops that the chops are a little 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.880 more in the neutral zone, whereas the sideburns are are 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.240 a little more towards the trustworthy side. So if I 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.680 can actually, you know, go buy anything that this infograph 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.760 has to say about the matter. Well, just as a 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:40.440 side note, you have a great photo gallery sideburns of science, 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:42.560 sideburns of science. See, I'm thinking we'll do one about 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:46.240 beards as well to go with this episode. One beard 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.200 that I that I am seeing a lot of recently 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.240 because I'm watching, um, the current season of Madman is 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.760 the actor who plays the character Stan j R. Ferguson 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:56.840 has this huge beard. I don't know if you're up 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.480 to that point. Yeah, And so illustrator yea, the illustrator 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.280 massive beard, and uh, I was looking up I found 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.120 an interview with him and he says that when he 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.680 after he came in, um, you know, ready to do 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.720 the show, grew out this beard that they wanted him 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.320 to have for this season. He said it was actually 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:15.480 a bit too much. It was like a cross between 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.120 Jeremiah Johnson and Tom hankson Castaway, and they actually had 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.839 to trim it down to its to the state that 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.520 you see it in on that So so virile was 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.440 his beard. Yeah, I had to tame it back. You 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:30.599 know what's interesting about that, and we'll get into this, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.919 is that as a character he he usually says some 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:38.960 pretty loudish things, like loudish like um, you know, he 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:44.719 says some inappropriate things, sexually charged, now clean shaven, super creepy. 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.640 The beard I actually think softens that a bit. Yeah, 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.400 I think you're right. Yeah, because yeah, he's he's a 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.279 far more levable character with the beard. Well, also you 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.200 see a little bit more character development of him my 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:57.840 fields the show progresses, so you know him a little 0:04:57.839 --> 0:04:59.760 better about it than me as the beard. But yeah, 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:01.919 like earlier on you're like, who is this this guy's 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:03.680 guy's kind of awful, and now you're like, this is 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.600 one of the better gentlemen in the office. Yeah, you're right, 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.920 this guy's got personality. Yeah, and he I guess it's 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.080 the only I can't think of any of other characters 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:12.680 that current that are currently on the show that have 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.720 a beard. So no, but there is a lot of 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.080 facial hair going on for sure. No, let's look back 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.800 here in the time machine at ancient Greece, where the 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:25.359 beard was big, right, It was a sign of virility, 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.280 and it was an advertisement that you were not a Unich. Yes, 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.080 because presumably or this was the thought actually that if 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.400 you were a Unich, you wouldn't have the ability, would 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.279 not have the hormones to produce that the massive glorious 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:43.040 beards on your wisdom. And certainly in olden days various 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:45.680 societies this was there were enough Unix around that this 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:49.440 was actually something to think about. There actually a fair 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:53.080 number of Unix plays, varying roles in society, sometimes very 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.200 important roles. Um. Which reminds me we do need to 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:58.640 do an episode on Unix. Was that because the history 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.240 of Unix and some of the science of Unix is 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.760 is really, um, really fascinating. Um. But yeah, yeah, go 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.080 back to the Greeks. The Greeks loved them, at least 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.400 until Alexander the Great came along and he said, actually, 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:13.919 we don't need beards. We need to shave these beards 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.440 off if we're going into combat, because somebody could grab 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:20.960 me by my beard and start slicing at my face exactly. 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.120 And I imagine that at some point too, if you 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.159 are in a situation where you don't have access to 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.440 clean water and so on and so forth, that that 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.800 little beard could get quite contestive. Yeah, and certainly we've 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.320 been shaving beards for a while. Um, I mean we 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.279 well before we were shaving beards, presumably we're you know, 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.640 there were situations where one would pluck out the facial hair, 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:47.640 especially if you if you weren't stay capable of growing 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:49.720 like a full beard anyway, maybe you just decided to 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.160 go clean cut on it, and you would be you 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.120 would have to to plug at the hairs or find 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.600 out some of their methods. But we have found archaeological 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.279 evidence dating back to one thousand BC of into dual 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:04.000 shaving their beards clearly with some sort of flint instruments, 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.760 you know, the first razors if you will. Indeed, um, 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.760 it should not go unnoted that bearded ladies make appearances 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.360 throughout history, yes, right. Um. I wanted to point out 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.000 that some of this is due to something called hair sudism, 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.120 which is a variant of hypertrichosis, also known as the 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.800 werewolf syndrome, when there's an abnormal amount of hair growth 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.280 on the body. Uh. Though with hair sudism, it's usually 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:32.120 due to increased levels of androgens. Or male hormones. Now, 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:36.160 bearded ladies would show up in sideshow acts in the circus, right, 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.800 or freak shows as they were called. Most of the time, 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.000 those weren't actually ladies. They were just dudes to put 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:44.440 on a little with beards that put on a little 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:48.000 makeup and address. Yeah, but that's been going on since 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.480 Shakespeare's time, right, no ladies on the stage. Um. I 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.360 also want to point out the cultural significance of the 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:58.960 term beard, which is also slang for um, a person 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.960 who is a cover for a gay friend or a partner. Yes, 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.920 and apparently sometimes too, it would be a cover for 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:10.520 somebody who's having an affair in a nixed gender situation 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.480 as well. Yeah. Yeah, although I would say that the 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.800 actually i've heard it more used as a way to 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.920 sort of negate someone's homosexuality. Public feel like that's the 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.760 usage that sticks with us more these days. Yeah, it's 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:26.920 sort of this idea that you could give this heteronorm 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.880 appearance of a couple knowing that one of them was 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.719 gay the other was not. Um, But I do I 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.679 think it's fascinating because the term, again, when you're talking 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:42.000 about heteronorms, you talk about masculinity. And in the instance 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.120 where there is a male who is gay who is 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:49.040 with a woman, she the beard gives him masculinity. I'm 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:52.360 not saying that she gives him real masculinity. I'm saying 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:56.720 that from society's perspective, she's imbuing him with this power. 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.199 But it always makes me anytime I hear of the 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.440 term beard used in those scenarios, it makes me think 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.839 of money. Python's the Life of Brian where there's a 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.960 scene where someone someone's going to be stoned to death 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.920 and punishment for some sort of infraction. And and only 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.320 the men are allowed to come and witness this, but 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.240 only the women are really interested in attending it. So 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.560 they're all buying these fake beards from a vendor outside 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:26.680 the stoning area, and uh, and they're all, you know, 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.000 there to participate. I love that bit because on so 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:33.040 many different levels, I think it's a commentary society is. 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.840 It's some wonderful commentary throwne in to what is still 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.880 a very silly sketch. But that's Python for you. All Right, Well, 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.360 let's talk a bit about the evolution of the beard 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.480 and this sort of powers I said that is imbued 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:50.080 by this mass official hair. So needless to say, the 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:54.440 beard grows on the face. And it's really interesting when 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.760 you start thinking about the face, what is the human face, right, 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.880 Because certainly it is a bunch of skull meat. It 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.160 is uh, it's a place where we keep our eyes, 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:07.679 in our nose, in our mouth. So it's it's kind 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.520 of this uh, front loaded sensory array that allows us 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.199 to take in the sense world around us. But then 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.599 it is also something a bit more too, It is 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.840 also a communications array. Now, all this is complicated by 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:21.440 the fact that, of course we end up thinking of 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:25.000 our face as ourselves, right, like I am my face 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.040 to a certain extent, or at least my face is 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:29.040 an expression of who I am. Or you're saying that 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.480 some people allow how they look to color their personality. Well, 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.840 people end up augmenting their face and to varying degrees. 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.640 And the varying degrees may include, um, growing a beard, 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:41.880 it may mean wearing makeup, It may mean piercings, it 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.840 may mean tattoos, it may mean cosmetic surgery. All of 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.520 these things are done because we see the faces an 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:51.880 expression of who we are. But then the but then 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.240 it's also tied in with the fact that the faces 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:58.600 a means of communicating. Um. Obviously, we make expressions. There 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:03.000 seven primary expressions and then various um micro expressions that 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.439 appear for just you know, fractions of a second and 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.360 some of the best, Yeah, that allow you to get 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:10.560 gains an insight into what's going on, what emotions are 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.959 we feeling, what emotions are recovering. And there's actually a 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.160 two thousand and eight check study that found that facial 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:22.240 expressions alone can speak a thousand words. So we get 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.640 into this idea of the face is not just you 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:29.240 know who we are, but but a means of communicating 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.960 with other members of our society. And uh. And so 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.400 there was another study that I found that plays into 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.000 this sin. This is the two thousand and twelve study 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.200 from a team of U. C. L a biologist, and 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.280 they started thinking about the evolution of the human face 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.600 and the evolution of the primate face and and how 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.400 does facial diversity UM factor into all of this. So 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:48.760 they looked at a hundred and twenty nine different adult 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.319 male primates from Central and South America, and the study 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.400 included this great wheel that that graph that had all 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.520 these different to monkey faces on and they arranged uh, 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.000 pretty wildly there's you know, there there are some very 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:03.319 conservative looking monkey faces that it is just like, oh, 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:04.800 well that is that is a monkey. If you saw 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:06.080 a picture of you be like, well look at that 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.480 monkey there is. And then others are you know, like 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:13.000 crazy must red faced, mustachioed, you know, crazy eyebrow like 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:17.480 you know crazy monkey pictures. Yeah, like very like punk 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.719 rock monk monkeys. And so you would look at these 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.800 and if you look at these thinking, um, all right, 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.760 some of these monkeys are gonna be more solitary than others, 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:27.839 and some are gonna be a little more society driven, 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.040 a little more you know, social and prone to live 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:33.720 in in packs and small groups. Um. And so what 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.839 is the correlation between facial complexity uh and uh and 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.200 and social activity? As it turns out, the crazier the 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.840 face on the primates in the study, the more solitary 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.120 the monkey, whereas the planer faced monkeys were more likely 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.720 to live in in some sort of a close knit 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.280 society and in a group of some courts sort. And 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.080 so the theory here is that since our face is 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.280 the communications of race, since our face is a means 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:04.000 of communicating with other members of our species, the plane 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.640 or the faces, the better the communication system. It's in 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:09.880 a large community, Yeah, it's like, you know, this is 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:11.960 the poster that I'm going to use, or you know, 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.720 this is the billboard I'm going to use to communicate 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:17.200 with people, And the more graffiti I have on it, 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:18.880 the you know, I have drapes up on it and 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:20.800 all sorts of crazy stuff. It's it's getting in the 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.720 way of my ability to use that to communicate the clearest. 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.480 So the crazy faces they're standing out on their own 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.480 because they don't have to use this. But the planer 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.240 faced monkeys, they're using this as a communication system. And 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.760 it's like a like a satellite dish. If you want 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.320 to pick up a signal, you want to have it 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:37.560 cleaned off. You don't want to have a bunch of 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.600 brush on it and drying clothes and what have you. Yeah, 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:42.080 it makes total sense because if you are in a 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.839 large community and you've got to read each other's facial expressions, 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.120 than the plane or the face the easier to read. 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.240 But if you are just hanging out with one or 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.320 two people, not a big deal to put on as 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:57.719 much of the the makeup exactly nature's makeup as possible. Um. 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.439 I do think it's really interesting in the human context 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:08.200 because conservative estimates say that um communication is perceived by 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:13.160 up I think upboards of six of nonverbal cues. Okay, 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.800 so it would make sense that whatever is crossing your 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.439 face is really going to inform another person about how 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:22.840 you feel, and particularly when you blush. I just looked 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:26.080 at some research on blushing, and it turns out that 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.040 the way that our vision is constructed, the cones in 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:32.680 our eyes they think. Uh. Scientists and researchers think that 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.200 it was constructed in a way that we could really 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:38.640 see the variances in skin color and humans, so that 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.960 we could perceive things like blushing as a subtle way 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.720 of saying, oh this, you know, the person um across 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.360 from me feels ashamed about this or regretful for doing something. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.200 And again this plays into this idea of nonverbal cues 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.640 letting us know what is truly going on between humans. 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:01.480 So what does allays have to with facial hair? Well, 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:05.160 if you dress up this canvas that you display your emotions, 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.520 you are certainly trying to say something with your beard, 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.360 or rather there are some subconscious things going on with 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:14.760 the beard. Well, to a certain extent, you're growing a mask. 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.680 You're growing this thing out of your face that covers 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.080 up you know, at least like half your face. It's 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.800 so it's it's it can be used as a means 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:28.240 of masking what you're actually feeling. Well, and I like 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:32.520 this idea of uh putting on a mask of power 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.520 to right. And if you look at the writings of 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:40.280 Barnaby J. Dixon, he's a postdoctoral researcher in the Evolution 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.040 and Ecology Research Center at the University of New South Wales. 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.600 He has a lot to say on this topic. Um. 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.120 He has a couple of different studies out right now. 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:50.360 And in fact, if you go to his website, he's 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:52.360 at Dixon with an S by the way, d I 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:54.920 X S O N. Does he himself of a beard. Yes, 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:57.280 if you go to his website, not only will you 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.160 see his glorious beard, which is um, you're not with 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:03.120 a mustache, by the way, you will also be able 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:05.920 to participate in a couple of online studies and see 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:09.320 some images of people with beards or men with beards 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.400 and then without beards, and go through the process of 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.040 rating them on their attractiveness. So let me get back 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.760 to Barnaby, though uh In the paper published in Behavioral 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:25.600 Ecology quote beards augment perceptions of men's age, social status, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:30.520 and aggressiveness, but not attractiveness. Dixon and Paul L. Vacy 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:32.640 take a look at the power and structure of vis 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.880 via beard and an abstract. He says, or they say, 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.080 Darwin positive that beards evolved in human ancestors via female 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.600 choice is a highly attractive masculine adornment. This is Darwin's theory. Yes, 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.040 this is they're saying. You know, Darwin put this out there, 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.040 who himself had a big beard later in life after 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:54.560 earlier in life having glorious beard. But they go on 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.720 to say that they think it's not necessarily um an 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.320 element of attractiveness. Here is more of power. And he 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.720 said that they show that women from two very different 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.480 ethnic groups a group of women um that are Europeans 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:10.000 from New Zealand and Polynesian women from Samoa, they don't 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:14.200 rate bearded faces as more attractive than clean shaven faces. 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:18.800 In fact, women from both of those groups judge bearded 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.960 faces to be older and ascribe them higher social status 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.120 than men who are clean shaven. Yeah. I mean, of course, 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:26.280 one of the things with all this, you have to 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.240 take into account all the human complexity of any of this. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.560 You know, if you're in a society where the beard 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.760 is more important and more established, and you know, that's 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.720 gonna that's gonna weigh weigh in other things. Uh. But 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.400 but most of the the studies that we were looking 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.280 at here, they were we were seeing that the beard 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.239 has a stronger role in intra sexual signaling than in 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.520 any kind of female mate preferences. In other words, guys, 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:52.879 you're growing that beard because you have something to say 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.359 to the other guys, not because or you know, you 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.720 may you may think otherwise, but ultimately your beard is 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.200 speaking to the other men. Well, and what's interesting about 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.760 the Polynesian women and the women from New Zealand is 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.320 that they then saw that men who were acting aggressively 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.520 with beards were deemed to be more aggressive than the 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:13.440 clean shaven brethren. So there's this idea again that it's 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:15.760 a sort of sort of suiting up a manning up 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.879 and again assuming a power roll. And if you look 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.520 at a paper by D. Caroline Blanchard which was published 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.399 in Behavioral Neuroscience, UM, they begin to see the animal 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.760 world being pulled in in the form of lions and 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.879 their means. Yeah, yeah, you know, this was an interesting 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.600 study that you came across. And the idea here, the 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:39.840 theory here is that all right, So why does the 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.800 lion have a main because it looks cool because it's 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.400 since the signal? Or does the lion have the main 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.640 because all of this extra hair protects some some some 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:54.159 very important parts of the neck and face. True, and 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.960 she says that lions with prominent means are like men 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.359 with beards, with the ideas that both began to grow 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.119 facial hair at puberty. Both the main and the beard 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:08.120 helped the single out gender in a crowd. And um, yes, 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.040 the beard, like the main, would give the wear a 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:16.080 more imposing silhouette and serve to blunt any attacks. Yeah. 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:17.960 Because one thing you have to to think about here too, 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.080 if this theory holds up, you have to think about 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.800 the way humans have it have evolved. Um, what are 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.840 natural weapons? Are natural weapons? Are fists? The first things 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:29.960 we're using to hurt each other, you know, aside from 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:31.840 you know, the the odd bite and maybe you know, 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:34.199 you know, at some point someone realizes, hey, we can 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.479 kick things too, But for the most part, we our 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.080 hands have evolved to punch people in the face. I 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.720 did a blog in a video about this a while back, 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:43.320 and the idea is that when you make a fist, 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.440 and and certainly we are the only species that makes 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:50.239 fists and punches other members of our species, or if 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.840 you're lion nissa, maybe a wolf with your with your fist, 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:56.600 when you make a fist, it's uh, you know, certainly 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.159 you can hurt your hand still when you, you know, 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.720 make contact, but it's structured so that you're actually protecting 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.480 a lot of the more fragile parts of the hand, 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.080 the moans and muscles when when you ball up. So 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.000 the idea here is that that we have we have 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.040 evolved over time to use these as weapons. So in 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.760 the course of evolution to it makes a certain amount 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.280 of sense that we might also develop some sort of 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:26.359 protective feature against people punching us in the face. And 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.560 then later in early developments, clearly some of our first 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.240 weapons are going to be blunt instrument weapons as well, 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.879 before we eventually get to where we're creating spears and 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.760 swords and axes and you know, on up to our 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.040 modern weaponry. Okay, so a lion who is being attacked 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:45.359 the other lion who was attacking the line with a 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:50.000 magnificent main would get a mouthful of hair, right, and 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:51.359 it would be a little bit harder to get to 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:55.680 the throat region. So if you're talking about humans then 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.480 striking each other on the chin, then you've got the 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:02.280 beard that kind of buffers the impact of that, right right. 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:04.640 And of course they don't really go into a mention 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.040 in the study, but humans today are not above biting 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:12.119