Aggressive people are easy to spot because they have instantly recognizable wide faces, researchers claim.

Just a quick glance at someone's facial structure may be enough to predict their tendency towards aggression, according to a study published in the Psychological Science journal found

Facial width-to-height ratio (WHR) is determined by measuring the distance between the right and left cheeks and the distance from the upper lip to the mid-brow.

Psychologists from Brock University in the USA decided to follow up on previous research that suggested males with a large facial WHR act more aggressively than those with narrower features .

In the study, volunteers viewed photos of faces of men who had previously had their aggressive behaviour analysed.

The participants then rated how aggressive they thought each person was on a scale of one to seven, after viewing each face for either 2000 milliseconds or 39 milliseconds.

The results revealed the participants' estimates of aggression correlated highly with the actual aggressive behaviour of the men - even if they only saw the picture for a split second.

And the volunteers' estimates also matched with the WHR of the faces the wider the face, the higher the aggressive rating.

The psychologists concluded that subtle differences in face shape may affect personality judgements, which in turn, guide how people respond to others.

During childhood, boys and girls have similar facial structures, but during puberty, males develop wider features than females.

Previous research has suggested that males with wider faces act more aggressively - with studies showing that hockey players with broad features earn more penalty minutes per game than other players .

研究人员日前称，具有攻击性的人很容易被认出，因为他们长着“一眼即可看出”的宽脸盘。

一项发表于《心理科学》期刊的研究发现，（当某人站在你面前时），只需迅速看一眼他的面部结构，可能就足以判断他的攻击性。

脸部的宽高比(WHR)是通过测量左右脸颊之间的距离和上嘴唇到眉中的距离得出的。

此前有研究表明，脸部宽高比值较大的男性比脸窄的男性更具侵略性。美国布鲁克大学的心理学家决定对此开展进一步研究。

研究人员让志愿者们浏览了不同男性的脸部照片。之前研究人员已对这些男性的攻击性行为进行了分析。

之后，志愿者们根据自己的感觉，对每个男性的进攻性按一分至七分进行评级。他们浏览每张照片的时间长则两秒，短则0.039秒。

研究结果表明，志愿者们对这些男性进攻性的估计与实际情况的相符度很高——即使他们只看了一眼照片。

而志愿者对男性进攻性的估计与脸部的宽高比也相符。脸部越宽，进攻性评级越高。

心理学家总结称，脸型的细微差别可能会影响个性判断，从而引导人们如何应付他人。

在儿童时期，男孩和女孩的脸部结构相似。但到了青春期，男性的脸部开始变得更宽。

此前研究表明，面部较宽的男性进攻性更强。有调查称，在曲棍球比赛中，脸部较宽的选手每场比赛被罚下的时间长于其他选手。