Facial texture has typically been studied as an umbrella phenomenon comprising several properties, such as skin tone and smoothness. Furthermore, texture has normally been addressed within complex models including also structural and dynamic properties and focusing on the extraction of perceptual dimensions from large numbers of physical and personality traits. It is yet unclear how individual facial textural properties affect the perception of individual physical and personality traits. We took a step in this direction by showing that the manipulation of a single facial textural property (skin smoothness) affected explicit evaluations of trustworthiness, competence, attractiveness, and health independently and in combination. Within the context of skin smoothness, our data also suggest a direct perceptual route for physical and an indirect perceptual route for personality traits.

Seven xanthanolides were identified in the extract of X. italicum leaves. Antibacterial and cytotoxic activities were found for the total extract and its major constituents xanthinin and xanthatin.

Recent research suggests that attributions of aliveness and mental capacities to faces are influenced by social group membership. In this article, we investigated group related biases in mind perception in participants from a Western and Eastern culture, employing faces of varying ethnic groups. In Experiment 1, Caucasian faces that ranged on a continuum from real to artificial were evaluated by participants in the UK (in-group) and in India (out-group) on animacy, abilities to plan and to feel pain, and having a mind. Human features were found to be assigned to a greater extent to faces when these belonged to in-group members, whereas out-group faces had to appear more realistic in order to be perceived as human. When participants in India evaluated South Asian (in-group) and Caucasian (out-group) faces in Experiment 2, the results closely mirrored those of the first experiment. For both studies, ratings of out-group faces were significantly predicted by participants’ levels of ethnocultural empathy. The findings highlight the role of intergroup processes (i.e., in-group favoritism, out-group dehumanization) in the perception of human and mental qualities and point to ethnocultural empathy as an important factor in responses to out-groups.

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