Acne “significantly influences” people’s feelings towards us, according to ground-breaking new research.
Faces with acne are seen as less attractive, trustworthy, confident, successful, dominant and happy, according to scientists from Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland.
The discovery prompted researchers to call for treatment to improve the quality of life for patients, as well as their skin.
The study presented at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) Congress 2023, also revealed that women are more affected.
People found women with “U-zone” acne the least attractive of all, where spots gathered around jawline, mouth and chin.
Smiling women with acne were even felt to be less happy than those with clear-skin.
Having “less attractive” physical characteristics can influence job applications, and lead people to suffer social distress, including social isolation, higher physiological stress and even poorer health.
Acne is already known to potentially have a psychological impact, prompting low self-esteem, social isolation and depression.
The last decade has seen a 10 percent rise in female adult acne, often affecting the jawline and chin.
Dr. Marek Jankowski, Nicolaus Copernicus University said treatment must address the “psychological burden” of having acne.
He said: “With over a decade of experience in the field, I’ve consistently seen that adult female acne leads to more social challenges compared to adolescent acne.
“The findings therefore reaffirm this. However, what was truly surprising was images depicting generalised acne, covering a larger area with more lesions, received more positive ratings than images featuring adult female acne occurring in the ‘U-zone.’”
“Treatment needs to focus on improving the quality of life of patients, not just reducing the surface area impacted by the acne.
“Unfortunately, this is not currently a goal when treating acne, with therapeutic guidelines still advocating for certain treatment modalities based on the number of lesions, irrespective of their location.
“Unsurprisingly, acne severity scores do not correlate with quality-of-life scores in patients with acne.
“These results clearly emphasize the emotional and psychological burden experienced by individuals with acne.”
Genes, stress, hormones, and diet can all up the risk of developing acne.
Scientists tracked 245 participants’ eye movements when they looked at neutral and emotional faces of women with clear skin and various types of acne.
The women appeared happy, angry or neutral.
Experts tested how each image disturbed the participants’’ eyes, and how great the affect was.
Separately, 205 people with a mean age of around 35 were asked to rank the personality traits of each woman in the pictures.
Women with the U-zone acne received the lowest attractiveness scores and disturbed the eyes the most.
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
