Facial attractiveness impressions precede trustworthiness inferences: lower detection thresholds and faster decision latencies

Gutiérrez-García, Aida; Beltrán, David; Calvo, Manuel G.

doi:10.1080/02699931.2018.1444583

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Our study compared attractiveness and trustworthiness tasks within the same paradigm and for the same stimuli to estimate their relative time course. With this approach, we have shown an earlier neural processing of attractiveness, which converges with behavioral findings showing lower detection thresholds and shorter decision latencies for attractiveness than for trustworthiness judgments (Gutiérrez-García, Beltrán, & Calvo, 2018).…”

Section: Relationships With Prior Researchsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…The neural time course advantage of attractiveness relative to trustworthiness suggests that an earlier first impression or evaluation of a person as un/attractive may predispose observers to judge that person as un/trustworthy, which could account for the typical facial attractiveness/trustworthiness correlation (Gutiérrez-García et al, 2018;Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008;Xu et al, 2012). There is a cognitiveeconomy explanation for the earlier processing of attractiveness: Reliance on easily observable attractiveness cues would serve as a mental shortcut to trustworthiness, and thus it would ease the cognitive load of making complex trustworthiness decisions about less accessible information.…”

Section: Theoretical Implications and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Relatedly, the neural time course advantage of emotional expression processing, relative to attractiveness/trustworthiness, implies that initially perceiving a face as angry or happy could bias viewers to judge the expresser as unattractive or attractive (and then as un/trustworthy). This is based on the fact that some expressions are consistently associated with attractiveness/trustworthiness (happy) or unattractiveness/ untrustworthiness (angry) (Gutiérrez-García et al, 2018;Said et al, 2011;Sutherland et al, 2017). Thus, emotional facial expressions would modulate our first impressions for beauty and trust.…”

Section: Theoretical Implications and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neural time course and brain sources of facial attractiveness vs. trustworthiness judgment

Calvo

Gutiérrez-García

Beltrán

2018

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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Prior research has shown that the more (or less) attractive a face is judged, the more (or less) trustworthy the person is deemed and that some common neural networks are recruited during facial attractiveness and trustworthiness evaluation. To interpret the relationship between attractiveness and trustworthiness (e.g., whether perception of personal trustworthiness may depend on perception of facial attractiveness), we investigated their relative neural processing time course. An event-related potential (ERP) paradigm was used, with localization of brain sources of the scalp neural activity. Face stimuli with a neutral, angry, happy, or surprised expression were presented in an attractiveness judgment, a trustworthiness judgment, or a control (no explicit social judgment) task. Emotional facial expression processing occurred earlier (N170 and EPN, 150-290 ms post-stimulus onset) than attractiveness and trustworthiness processing (P3b, 400-700 ms). Importantly, right-central ERP (C2, C4, C6) differences reflecting discrimination between "yes" (attractive or trustworthy) and "no" (unattractive or untrustworthy) decisions occurred at least 400 ms earlier for attractiveness than for trustworthiness, in the absence of LRP motor preparation differences. Neural source analysis indicated that facial processing brain networks (e.g., LG, FG, and IPL-extending to pSTS), also right-lateralized, were involved in the discrimination time course differences. This suggests that attractiveness impressions precede and might prime trustworthiness inferences and that the neural time course differences reflect truly facial encoding processes.

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Section: Relationships With Prior Researchsupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Theoretical Implications and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Implications and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Neural time course and brain sources of facial attractiveness vs. trustworthiness judgment

Calvo

Gutiérrez-García

Beltrán

2018

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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“…This parallels studies demonstrating a relationship between a man's attractiveness and his apparent trustworthiness 29 . An explanation for why good-looking men are trusted more than men who are less good-looking is that attractiveness serves as an easily accessible cue to more complex and not easily accessible traits such as trustworthiness 36 . Others have emphasised the intrinsic value of attractiveness: There is an incentive to invest in good-looking men because of their high mate value 30 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pleasant body odours, but not genetic similarity, influence trustworthiness in a modified trust game

Lobmaier

Probst

Fischbacher

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Identifying trustworthy partners is an important adaptive challenge for establishing mutually cooperative relationships. Previous studies have demonstrated a marked relationship between a person’s attractiveness and his apparent trustworthiness (beauty premium). Kin selection theory, however, suggests that cues to kinship enhance trustworthiness. Here we directly tested predictions of the beauty premium and kin selection theory by using body odours as cues to trustworthiness. Body odours reportedly portray information about an individuals’ genotype at the human leucocyte antigen system (HLA) and thus olfactory cues in body odours serve as a promising means for kin recognition. Ninety men played trust games in which they divided uneven sums of monetary units between two male trustees represented by their body odour and rated each body odour for pleasantness. Half of the odours came from HLA-similar men (suggesting closer kin) and half from HLA dissimilar men (suggesting non-kin). We found that the amount of money the players transferred was not related to HLA-similarity, but to the pleasantness of the trustee’s body odour. By showing that people with more pleasant body odours are trusted more than people with unpleasant body odour we provide evidence for a “beauty-premium” that overrides any putative effect of kin.

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“…Trustworthiness can be judged after as little as 50 ms of exposure to a neutral face ( Todorov et al, 2009 ) and more quickly than many other personality traits (e.g., likeability, competence, and aggressiveness; Willis and Todorov, 2006 ), but not more quickly than attractiveness ( Olson and Marshuetz, 2005 ). A recent study showed that attractiveness judgments precede trustworthiness judgments, with lower detection thresholds and shorter decision latencies ( Gutierrez-Garcia et al, 2019 ). Moreover, prior research has found that the judgment-based event-related potential component occurs earlier for attractiveness than for trustworthiness ( Calvo et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nonlinear and Gender-Related Relationships of Face Attractiveness and Typicality With Perceived Trustworthiness

Liu

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Perceived trustworthiness is one of the most important facial traits in social interaction. To elucidate how facial trustworthiness is assessed by others and its relationship to other facial traits would have significant theoretical and practical implications. Prior studies have shown that perceived attractiveness and typicality of a face may contribute to trustworthiness judgments; i.e., trustworthy faces are always the typical and attractive ones. Here, by conducting judgments of facial traits (i.e., trustworthiness, attractiveness, and typicality) on the same set of faces, we revealed a more profound relationship among these facial traits. First, we found that trustworthiness judgments did not always peak at the average face, in contrast to previous research. Second, trustworthiness exhibited a nonlinear relationship with attractiveness and typicality: Men relied more on typicality when judging a face as untrustworthy or neutral, whereas women relied more on typicality when judging a face as untrustworthy but more on attractiveness when judging a face as trustworthy. Third, women and men may utilize different traits to evaluate face trustworthiness: The relationship between trustworthiness and typicality judgments was closer in men than in women, whereas women counted on face attractiveness more than men did to evaluate face trustworthiness. These findings demonstrate that judging the trustworthiness of a face is a more complex process than previously thought, which may lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying highly flexible and sophisticated social interactions in humans.

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Facial attractiveness impressions precede trustworthiness inferences: lower detection thresholds and faster decision latencies

Cited by 23 publications

References 24 publications

Neural time course and brain sources of facial attractiveness vs. trustworthiness judgment

Neural time course and brain sources of facial attractiveness vs. trustworthiness judgment

Pleasant body odours, but not genetic similarity, influence trustworthiness in a modified trust game

The Nonlinear and Gender-Related Relationships of Face Attractiveness and Typicality With Perceived Trustworthiness

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