We've all heard the saying "don't judge a book by its cover," but how often do we judge others by how they look? Probably more often than we should.

It's human nature to make decisions about people based on physical traits, clothing, and how they present themselves. We do this all the time, and it's not just adults; children make natural judgments based on looks, too.

Attractive people are more likely to be trusted

A recent study showed that how much we trust someone depends on how attractive we think they are.

Studying 138 children, ages eight, ten, and twelve, Dr Fengling Ma and Dr Fe Xu of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, and Dr Xiaming Lu of Wenzhou Medical University, China came to this conclusion using what they called FaceGen. A face generation program (FaceGen) produced "200 images of male faces - all with a neutral expression and direct gaze. In the first of two sessions, each participant was shown each face, and asked to rate how trustworthy they thought that person was. A second session followed a month later where participants repeated the exercise, this time rating the attractiveness of the same faces," stated Science Daily.

The results showed a direct correlation: the faces rated more attractive were also rated more trustworthy. Additionally, the scientists found that this "relationship also strengthened with age, and reveals that, like adults, children also look to a person's attractiveness as an indication of their character."

Is there some truth to this?

We've all known people (attractive and not very attractive) whose appearance in our eyes changes as we get to know them better. Some attractive people have become less beautiful, and those we may have thought of as ugly, become more attractive to us. Additionally, sometimes what we learn about them solidifies their appearance for good or bad - something the study failed to research.

Perhaps how someone looks to us has a lot more to do with what's on the inside and less to do with actual physical features. What is in someone's heart and mind affects their appearance drastically. We often put our intuition aside to make early judgments on people when it comes to trust and friendship - and often, that feeling we get is correct.

Perhaps our inner self can feel things we don't yet know and sends us a warning or gives us the go ahead.

While we may not be able to change how we look, we can change who we are inside. You can aspire to have a happy, healthy outlook and desires. We can seek good in all that we do, say, and think. What's in our heart and mind really makes a difference in who we are and how others see us. Perhaps it's time to let your inner beauty demonstrate what kind of person you are, instead of fully relying on outward appearance.