Association of Facial Paralysis With Perceptions of Personality and Physical Traits

Facial paralysis has a significant effect on affect display, with the most notable deficit being patients' the inability to smile in the same way as those without paralysis. These impairments may result in undesirable judgements of personal qualities, thus leading to a significant social penalty in those who have the condition.

To quantify the association of facial paralysis with the way smiling patients are perceived by others with respect to personality traits, attractiveness, and femininity or masculinity and to evaluate the potential association of facial palsy-related patient-reported outcome measures with how patients are perceived by others.

This retrospective cross-sectional study used 20 images of smiling patients with facial paralysis evaluated between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2016. Using photograph editing software, the photographs were edited to create a simulated nonparalysis smiling facial appearance. A total of 40 photographs were split into 4 groups of 10 photographs, each with 5 altered and 5 unaltered photographs. The surveys were designed such that altered and unaltered photographs of the same patient were not placed in the same survey to avoid recall bias. Anonymous raters used a 7-point Likert scale to rate their perception of each patient's personality traits (ie, aggressiveness, likeability, and trustworthiness), attractiveness, and femininity or masculinity based on photographs in their assigned survey. Raters were blinded to study intent. Scores from the Facial Clinimetric Evaluation questionnaire were included to assess self-perception. Data were analyzed from November 11, 2019, to February 20, 2020.

Ratings of personality traits, attractiveness, and femininity or masculinity. Social function domain scores and overall scores were analyzed from the Facial Clinimetric Evaluation questionnaire.

This study included photographs of 20 patients with facial paralysis (mean [range] age, 54 [28-69] years; 15 [75%] women). A total of 122 respondents completed the survey (71 [61%] women). Most respondents were between the ages of 25 and 34 years (79 participants [65%]). Overall, smiling photos of patients with facial paralysis were perceived as significantly less likeable (difference, -0.29; 95% CI, -0.43 to -0.14), trustworthy (difference, -0.25; 95% CI, -0.39 to -0.11), attractive (difference, -0.47; 95% CI, -0.62 to -0.32), and feminine or masculine (difference, -0.21; 95% CI, -0.38 to -0.03) compared with their simulated preparalysis photographs. When analyzed by sex, smiling women with facial paralysis experienced lower ratings for likeability (difference, -0.34; 95% CI, -0.53 to -0.16), trustworthiness (difference, -0.24; 95% CI, -0.43 to -0.06), attractiveness (difference, -0.74; 95% CI, -0.94 to -0.55), and femininity (difference, -0.35; 95% CI, -0.58 to -0.13). However, smiling men with facial paralysis only received significantly lower ratings for likeability (difference, -0.24; 95% CI, -0.47 to -0.01) and trustworthiness (difference, -0.30; 95% CI, -0.53 to -0.07). As patients' self-reported social function and total Facial Clinimetric Evaluation scores increased, there was an increase in perceived trustworthiness (rs[480] = 0.11; P = .02) and attractiveness (rs[478] = 0.10; P = .04) scores by raters.

In this study, photographs of patients with facial paralysis received lower ratings for several personality and physical traits compared with digitally edited images with no facial paralysis. These findings suggest a social penalty associated with facial paralysis.