Evidence against the “anomalous-is-bad” stereotype in Hadza hunter gatherers

Abstract

People have an “anomalous-is-bad” stereotype whereby they make negative inferences about the moral character of people with craniofacial anomalies like scars. This stereotype is hypothesized to be a byproduct of adaptations for avoiding pathogens. However, evidence for the anomalous-is-bad stereotype comes from studies of European and North American populations; the byproduct hypothesis would predict universality of the stereotype. We presented 123 Hadza across ten camps pairs of morphed Hadza faces—each with one face altered to include a scar—and asked who they expected to be more moral and a better forager. Hadza with minimal exposure to other cultures chose at chance for both questions. Hadza with greater exposure to other cultures, however, expected the scarred face to be less moral and a better forager. These results suggest the anomalous-is-bad stereotype may be culturally shared or learned erroneously through associations with population-level differences, providing evidence against a universal pathogen avoidance byproduct hypothesis.

Normalizing Anomalies with Mobile Exposure (NAME): Reducing implicit biases against people with facial anomalies

“…This view entails the troubling prospect that an aversion to anomalous facial features may reflect a deeply embedded feature of our cognitive architecture, rendering the anomalous-is-bad stereotype difficult to mitigate. Our findings, however, are consistent with recent evidence that the anomalous-is-bad stereotype might not be attributable to pathogen avoidance but is instead be learned (Workman et al, , 2022.…”

“…In other words, facial anomalies can be treated like expressions of infectious disease. A recent cross-cultural study with the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania casts doubt on an overgeneralized pathogen avoidance account, however, suggesting instead that the anomalous-is-bad stereotype is learned (Workman et al, 2022). Repeated exposure to negative depictions of people with anomalous faces-in movies and other media, for instancemay strengthen reflexive negative emotional responses elicited by anomalous faces that drive negative affective behaviors like social avoidance (Amodio & Cikara, 2020).…”

Do attitudes about and behaviors towards people who enhance their cognition depend on their looks?

“…Previous work has consistently demonstrated that facial anomalies negatively affect perceptions of warmth (e.g., trustworthiness), with less consistent evidence for a negative effect on perceptions of competence (Bilici et al, 2022;Jamrozik et al, 2019;Workman et al, , 2022. In contrast to these studies, however, we did not uncover evidence that facial anomalies influenced perceptions of warmth let alone competence.…”

“…We first predicted that participants would give more money to partners with anomalous relative to non-anomalous faces, regardless of whether they enhanced, which could be motivated by feelings of pity or sympathy (Andreasen & Norris, 1972;Rumsey & Bull, 1986). Alternatively, participants could give less money to partners with anomalous relative to non-anomalous faces regardless of enhancement, which would align with evidence-albeit mixed-that facial anomalies are associated with worse competence that would render them less likely to pass the memory test (Jamrozik et al, 2019;Workman et al, , 2022.…”

First Impressions: Do Faces with Scars and Palsies Influence Warmth, Competence, and Humanization?

“…More positive impressions of attractive people are related to the "halo effect" (Eagly et al, 1991), a tendency to assess others positively in many areas based on at least one positive judgment about them. As a complement to the "beauty-is-good" stereotype, an "anomalous-is-bad" stereotype posits that people with visible facial differences are seen not only as less attractive but also as less moral (Jamrozik et al, 2019;Workman et al, 2022).…”