Physiognomy
The old, discredited idea that a person's character can be read from their face. It is not science.
Also: face reading
Physiognomy claimed that the shape of a face or its features reveals character, intelligence or morality. It appears in ancient Greek writing, was popularised in Europe by Johann Kaspar Lavater in the 1770s, and was used in the nineteenth century to support racist and criminal-type theories. Modern research does not support it: faces do not reveal character in this way. EveryFaceShape describes faces only as shapes and features, never as signs of who a person is.