PARIS: The shape of a man’s face can help predict his sporting acumen, according to a study yesterday that found Japanese baseball players whose faces were relatively broad rather than long were most likely to hit a home run.
University of London psychologists measured the facial width-to-height ratio, or fWHR, of 104 batters in Japan’s professional Central League Pennant who played in the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In both seasons, the players who scored the most home runs had the highest fWHR, said the study in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
Previous research has found a link between face ratio and competitiveness among politicians and financial success among corporate chiefs, but this work had focussed only on Caucasian subjects, not Asians.
Want to be a sports star? Look in the mirror
