Arbitrary signals of trustworthiness – social judgments may rely on facial expressions even with experimentally manipulated valence

Abstract

Generalization has been suggested as a basic mechanism in forming impressions about unfamiliar people. In this study, we investigated how social evaluations will be transferred to individual faces across contexts and to expressions across individuals. A total of 93 people (33 men, age: M = 29.95; SD = 13.74) were exposed to facial images which they had to evaluate. In the Association phase, we presented one individual with (1) a trustworthy, (2) an untrustworthy, (3) or an ambiguous expression, with either positive or negative descriptive sentence pairs. In the Evaluation phase participants were shown (1) a new individual with the same emotional facial expression as seen before, and (2) a neutral image of the previously presented individual. They were asked to judge the trustworthiness of each person. We found that the valence of the social description is transferred to both individuals and expressions. That is, the social evaluations (positive or negative) transferred between the images of two different individuals if they both displayed the same facial expression. The consistency between the facial expression and the description, however, had no effect on the evaluation of the same expression appearing on an unfamiliar face. Results suggest that in social evaluation of unfamiliar people invariant and dynamically changing facial traits are used to a similar extent and influence these judgements through the same associative process.

Semantics Based on the Physical Characteristics of Facial Expressions Used to Produce Japanese Vowels

“…Facial display is a tool well known to humans, and it facilitates our social communication; in successful communication, perceivers usually try to understand targets' internal states by focusing on what they are saying as well as what they are expressing through their facial configurations [7]. In fact, facial expressions are a means of conveying a wide range of information [8][9][10][11][12]. While facial expressions commonly provide a clue about which emotions an expresser may be experiencing [13,14], inferences made exclusively from facial movements may not be in accordance with the actual feelings of the expresser, mainly because facial movements can be caused by several factors.…”

The Expressive Triad: Structure, Color, and Texture Similarity of Emotion Expressions Predict Impressions of Neutral Faces

“…Research that has examined these cues in isolation demonstrated that they impact perceptions related to attractiveness and health (Pazda et al, 2016 ; Thorstenson et al, 2017 ; Perrett et al, 2020 ) as well as gender (Russell, 2003 , 2009 ). It is certainly possible face color and texture influence impressions related to gender or health in a largely associative manner, much like how face structure has been shown to influence impressions via emotion overgeneralization (see, Heerey and Velani, 2010 ; Kocsor et al, 2019 ). That is, health influences mood (see, Yeung, 1996 for review), and therefore healthy individuals are likely associated with positivity.…”

Evolúciós pszichológia – az elmúlt 30 év

“…A kutatócsoport kiemelt projektje volt egy évtizeden keresztül a hasonlóság alapján történő párválasztás (homogámia), amelyet egyrészt a fenotípusos illesztés, másrészt a szexuális imprinting etológiai modelljei alapján magyaráztak (Bereczkei, Gyuris és Weisfeld, 2004; Gyuris, Járai és Bereczkei, 2010; Kocsor, Saxton, Láng és . Végül az arcvizsgálatok az utóbbi években kibővültek az arcon fellehető szociális jelzések elemzésével, így például azzal, hogy a megbízhatóság kulcsai hogyan befolyásolják a szociális értékítéleteket, és milyen kölcsönhatásban vannak a vonzerő tulajdonságaival (Kocsor, Kozma, Neria, Jones és Bereczkei, 2019;Putz, Palotai, Csertő és Bereczkei, 2016). Ezekben a vizsgálatokban a "hagyományos" pszichológiai módszereken túl olyan kísérleti paradigmákat használtak és használnak, amelyek lehetővé teszik az arcvonások és arányok számítógépes mérését és transzformációját.…”