Can the shape of your skull or the look of your face say something deeper about you? Like – if you're a good parent? Or if you're smart? Or if you're more likely to be a criminal? Well – the answer is no, absolutely not. But in the past, some scientists used the pseudosciences of phrenology, which studied the skull, and physiognomy, which studied the face, to try to prove that how you look says something about who you are on the inside. Again, it's junk science. But something peculiar is happening: it seems like there's been more interest lately in some of the ideas behind phrenology and physiognomy. From "witch skulls and angel skulls," to the skull geometry of transvestigations, to the question of whether AI can detect gay faces – it seems like more and more, people want to categorize each other with just a look at their heads. Brittany is joined by Yale professor of philosophy Lily Hu and Rolling Stone culture writer Miles Klee to understand the appeal and the consequences of fake skull and face science coming back around in the culture. Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. Can the shape of your skull or the look of your face say something deeper about you? Hello. Like if you're a good parent, or if you're smart, or if you're more likely to be a criminal. Well, the answer is no, absolutely not.
But in the past, some scientists used the pseudosciences of phrenology, which studied the skull, and physiognomy, which studied the face, to try to prove that how you look says something about who you are on the inside. Again, it's junk science. Totally fake. However, these junk sciences were used towards some pretty racist ends.
Phrenologists used to rank people by race, from most to least evolved, just by using the shapes of their skulls. So phrenology is a classic hit now in the pseudosciences. That's Yale professor of philosophy, Lily Hu. She studies social science, race, and machine learning. She's here with me today, along with Rolling Stone culture writer, Miles Klee.
How's it going?
Because something peculiar is happening. To my eye, there's been more interest lately in some of the ideas behind phrenology and physiognomy. From quote-unquote witch skulls and angel skulls, to the skull geometry of transvestigators, to the question of whether AI can detect gay faces, it seems like more and more people want to categorize each other with just a look at their heads.
Here's my chat with Lily and Miles to understand the appeal and consequences of fake skull and face science coming back around in our culture. Even if it might not actually work, I am seeing a lot of that same idea that our skulls or our faces say something about who we are as people pop up in our culture anyway. Miles, where are you seeing that out in the wild?
Yeah, well, this got pretty big on TikTok over the last couple of years as just part of what I think of as the conspirituality pipeline. And that's just a catch-all term, I think, for woo-woo beliefs that lead you down a rabbit hole into something that can be quite racist and harmful and reactionary. So yeah, maybe it's fun to have your skull read in the same way that it's fun to think about...
what your astrological sign means about your personality, right? On the surface, yeah, it's very fun. Like on TikTok, like if you want to talk about an angel skull or a witch skull, and I couldn't even begin to define those things for you, because I think people are just making those up as they go. But it can lead you down this path to basically eugenicist thought.
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