Which cheek did Jesus turn?

Abstract

In portraiture, subjects are mostly depicted with a greater portion of the left side of their face (left hemiface) facing the viewer. This bias may be induced by the right hemisphere's dominance for emotional expression and agency. Since negative emotions are particularly portrayed by the left hemiface, and since asymmetrical hemispheric activation may induce alterations of spatial attention and action-intention, we posited that paintings of the painful and cruel crucifixion of Jesus would be more likely to show his left hemiface than observed in portraits of other people. By analyzing depictions of Jesus's crucifixion from book and art gallery sources, we determined a significantly greater percent of these crucifixion pictures showed the left hemiface of Jesus facing the viewer than found in other portraits. In addition to the facial expression and hemispatial attention-intention hypotheses, there are other biblical explanations that may account for this strong bias, and these alternatives will have to be explored in future research.

Did Buddha turn the other cheek too? A comparison of posing biases between Jesus and Buddha

“…These results also corroborate with research that suggests that posing direction varies depending on the amount of emotion to be conveyed, and that both artists and subjects decide to portray different poses based on the amount of emotion they wish to convey (Acosta et al, 2013;Burkitt et al, 2006;Churches et al, 2012;Nicholls et al, 1999;Thomas et al, 2006Thomas et al, , 2012. Previous research has shown that the amount of emotionality one wishes to convey influences pose such that those who wish to portray less emotion pose offering the right cheek or a central face presentation and those who wish to portray more emotion pose offering the left cheek Churches et al, 2012;Nicholls et al, 1999;Thomas et al, 2012).…”

“…Paintings portraying the Crucifixion of Jesus display a leftward posing bias (Acosta et al, 2013), whereas forward and rightward portrayals of the face are more common in pictures depicting the Resurrection than the Crucifixion (Acosta, Williamson, & Heilman, 2015). These biases in Christian artwork were explained using the hemispheric valence hypothesis.…”

“…There are also sex differences in posing biases, with females more likely to pose to the left than males (Churches et al, 2014;Thomas, Burkitt, Patrick, & Elias, 2008). Previous researchers have hypothesized that differences in the intensity of emotionality to be portrayed in an image influences the pose of the individual (Acosta et al, 2013;Burkitt et al, 2006;Churches et al, 2014;Thomas, Loetscher, Clode, & Nicholls, 2012).…”

Left wings to the left: Posing and perceived political orientation

“…This posing bias has been found in as disparate contexts as yearbook photos (LaBar, 1973), selfies (Bruno et al, 2013;Bruno et al, 2015), photographs of infants and non-human mammals , and in portraits of Jesus (Acosta, Williamson, & Heilman, 2013). Although the leftward posing bias is widespread, there are certain contexts in which this bias disappears.…”

“…This shift in bias is further reflected in online profile pictures of academics, where disciplines such as English and psychology, which are more associated with emotion, show a more leftward orientation than science academics (Churches et al, 2012), and in images from different religions, wherein portraits associated with the more emotionally expressive religion Christianity exhibit a leftward posing bias more often than the less emotional Buddhism (Duerksen et al, 2016). Further, images depicting the emotional event of the Crucifixion of Jesus show a greater leftward posing bias than do other portraits (Acosta et al, 2013), and images created with less of an emotional intent, such as advertisements, show a rightward, rather than leftward, bias . While these studies investigate posing biases in disparate contexts, together, they suggest that individuals tend to pose to the left when wishing to express more emotion.…”