Mirror, Mirror: Secret Two-Way Mirror Shows People They're More Beautiful Than They Thought
What’s the first thing you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see your favorite features or your perceived imperfections?
Chances are it’s your flaws. However, strangers’ first impressions of you are most likely much different than what you see. In many cases, they see the polar opposite of what you do.
Buzzfeed asked men and women to look into a mirror and describe themselves. What they didn’t know was strangers were standing on the other side of the two-way mirror describing their first impressions of them. The strangers were much kinder than the self-critics.
“I think it’s still socially unacceptable to say things to others that we would say to ourselves,” Heather Patrick, researcher at the National Institutes of Health, told CNN in 2012. “We don’t filter our judgments of ourselves in the same way that we filter judgments of others.”
“I’m kind of self-conscious of my round face, especially my cheek bones,” one participant said.
“He’s definitely in shape. He has really nice cheeks,” said the stranger.
“I think I have donkey legs,” said another participant.
“That’s a great body type. I don’t know if she realizes how lucky she is,” the stranger stated.
A few days later, the participants went back to view the footage of the strangers’ first impressions.
Words to live by from one participant: “You’re better than who you think you are and you’re enough just the way you are, so be kinder to yourself.”