Effects of Facial Symmetry and Gaze Direction on Perception of Social Attributes: A Study in Experimental Art History

Abstract

This article explores the possibility of testing hypotheses about art production in the past by collecting data in the present. We call this enterprise “experimental art history”. Why did medieval artists prefer to paint Christ with his face directed towards the beholder, while profane faces were noticeably more often painted in different degrees of profile? Is a preference for frontal faces motivated by deeper evolutionary and biological considerations? Head and gaze direction is a significant factor for detecting the intentions of others, and accurate detection of gaze direction depends on strong contrast between a dark iris and a bright sclera, a combination that is only found in humans among the primates. One uniquely human capacity is language acquisition, where the detection of shared or joint attention, for example through detection of gaze direction, contributes significantly to the ease of acquisition. The perceived face and gaze direction is also related to fundamental emotional reactions such as fear, aggression, empathy and sympathy. The fast-track modulator model presents a related fast and unconscious subcortical route that involves many central brain areas. Activity in this pathway mediates the affective valence of the stimulus. In particular, different sub-regions of the amygdala show specific activation as response to gaze direction, head orientation and the valence of facial expression. We present three experiments on the effects of face orientation and gaze direction on the judgments of social attributes. We observed that frontal faces with direct gaze were more highly associated with positive adjectives. Does this help to associate positive values to the Holy Face in a Western context? The formal result indicates that the Holy Face is perceived more positively than profiles with both direct and averted gaze. Two control studies, using a Brazilian and a Dutch database of photographs, showed a similar but weaker effect with a larger contrast between the gaze directions for profiles. Our findings indicate that many factors affect the impression of a face, and that eye contact in combination with face direction reinforce the general impression of portraits, rather than determine it.

Approachability and Credibility of Virtual Character Faces: The Role of the Horizontal Viewing Angle

“…Credibility judgments were clearly strongest in the neutral position and decreased linearly with increasing angle. This finding is consistent with studies that found the neutral face position was perceived as more trustworthy than in positions that were vertically tilted (Baranowski & Hecht, 2018;Zhang et al, 2020) or horizontally tilted (Folgerø et al, 2016;Normoyle et al, 2013). In other words, for making favorable credibility judgments, people need to see a person straight into the eye (assuming eye gaze and viewing angle are congruent as in our study).…”

“…In other words, both constructs are perceived strongest in the neutral position, and continuously less with increasing angle. This observation is consistent with evaluations of averted faces in Renaissance paintings which modern-day people evaluated higher on negative traits (e.g., authoritarian, evasive, dominant) and lower on positive traits (e.g., harmonious, trustworthy, respectable) (Folgerø et al, 2016). More importantly, the negative viewing angle relationship is in line with an evolutionary psychology account specifying that facial cues are evaluated as signals of whether the person represents a threat for survival (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008).…”

A Face to Love or Trust

“…This sets the limits at a higher ranking than 6.7 and a lower ranking than 21.3 (i.e., 14 ± sqrt(3.8 × 14)). The choice of template was motivated by an earlier investigation into preferences in Renaissance paintings and facial symmetry [20]. Another motivation is to be able to focus on more general proportions in the face rather than individual faces.…”

Unit 2 Lesson: Portraits as Faces

“…In addition, we also sometimes require that the image conveys some of the model's personality and inner feelings. Our tendency to endow images with a presence is a phenomenon that can be investigated scientifically under the heading 'theory of mind'-a psychological term that refers to our capacity to understand other people's emotions (Folgerø et al, 2016;Martínez, 2020).Many of the portraits that we know from history's greatest artists were painted long before the invention of photography, and had, perhaps precisely for this reason, much of the same social function that photographs today have. But can we from this draw the conclusion that the audience before, say, 1800 perceived a real person in the painting and that the spectator's encounter with a portrait had some of the atmosphere of a meeting between real people?…”

“…In addition, we also sometimes require that the image conveys some of the model's personality and inner feelings. Our tendency to endow images with a presence is a phenomenon that can be investigated scientifically under the heading 'theory of mind'-a psychological term that refers to our capacity to understand other people's emotions (Folgerø et al, 2016;Martínez, 2020).…”