The New Face: Narcissism, Cosmetic Surgery, and the Modern Hunger to Be Seen (opens in new tab)

A curious thing has happened to the human face. For most of history, it was something you carried through life. Now it is something you manage. You optimize it. Photograph it. Filter it. Evaluate it. Compare it. Market it. Improve it. The face, once a record of a life, has become a project. A recent study published in Aesthetic Plastic Surgery found that folks scoring higher on narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism were significantly more accepting of cosmetic surgery. Among the three...