More recent studies have shown similar results, all examining how facial appearance feeds success, irrespective of your sex appeal. The more dominant you look, the more likely you are to be hired as a CEO – and the higher your pay packet, for example. In the military, meanwhile, scientists have asked people to judge faces of cadets for perceived dominance. Those with the higher ratings were more likely to climb the ranks later in life.

Honesty, in particular, is thought to show itself all over your face. When given a range of photos, participants mostly agree who looks more trustworthy – and they are more likely to lend that person money as a result. In court, an innocent face could even be your get-out-of-jail-free card; given the same evidence, people who look more trustworthy are less likely to be found guilty, one study found.

Admittedly, this centres on completely subjective reports. How do we know what makes an honest, competent or dominant face? One possibility is that we are simply responding to facial expressions – an open smile, or an angry frown. There’s no doubt that it does make a difference. Even so, the evidence suggests we are also reading other, more permanent cues. For instance, Olivola and Todorov have used carefully designed computer generated pictures with neutral expressions to control for all other factors. By asking subjects to rate them, and comparing the ratings of many different photos, the team has then been able to create a kind of digital photo-fit that best captures the subtle characteristics that signal each trait. The resulting pictures suggest that we are reacting to slight differences across the whole face – everything from the shape of the eye-brows to the underlying bone structure. See the faces below to judge whether you look particularly competent, dominant, extrovert or trustworthy.