Integrating social and facial models of person perception: Converging and diverging dimensions

Abstract

Models of first impressions from faces have consistently found two underlying dimensions of trustworthiness and dominance. These dimensions show apparent parallels to social psychological models of inter-group perception that describe dimensions of warmth (cf. trustworthiness) and competence (cf. dominance), and it has been suggested that they reflect universal dimensions of social cognition. We investigated whether the dimensions from face and inter-group social perception models are indeed equivalent by evaluating first impressions of faces. Across four studies with differing methods we consistently found that while perceptions of trustworthiness and warmth were closely related, perceptions of dominance and competence were less strongly related. Taken together, our results demonstrate strong similarity on the first dimension across facial and social models, with less similarity on the second dimension. We suggest that facial impressions of competence and dominance may represent different routes to judging a stranger's capability to help or harm.

Facial first impressions and partner preference models: Comparable or distinct underlying structures?

“…In line with previous studies from which our model of facial first impressions was derived (e.g., Sutherland et al, 2013Sutherland et al, , 2016, all of the analyses we report involve the underlying structure of facial impressions. To achieve this, we use the averaged responses to each of the 1,000 face images as the primary data, rather than individual participants' responses (cf.…”

“…Oosterhof and Todorov (2008) suggested that these factors might be important because together they signal threat: An untrustworthy and dominant face represents someone who is best avoided, whilst a trustworthy-looking person may be a friendly ally. This two-factor solution bears striking resemblance to other models of person perception (Rosenberg, Nelson, & Vivekananthan, 1968;Wiggins, 1979), including the stereotype content model's dimension of warmth and competence (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007;Walker & Vetter, 2016; but see Sutherland et al, 2016). This two-factor solution bears striking resemblance to other models of person perception (Rosenberg, Nelson, & Vivekananthan, 1968;Wiggins, 1979), including the stereotype content model's dimension of warmth and competence (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007;Walker & Vetter, 2016; but see Sutherland et al, 2016).…”

“…An emerging literature on facial first impressions has modelled judgements to faces across different contexts (Olivola, Eubanks, & Lovelace, 2014;Sutherland et al, 2013;Sutherland, Oldmeadow, & Young, 2016;Walker & Vetter, 2009;see Todorov, Olivola, Dotsch, & Mende-Siedlecki, 2015, for a review). An emerging literature on facial first impressions has modelled judgements to faces across different contexts (Olivola, Eubanks, & Lovelace, 2014;Sutherland et al, 2013;Sutherland, Oldmeadow, & Young, 2016;Walker & Vetter, 2009;see Todorov, Olivola, Dotsch, & Mende-Siedlecki, 2015, for a review).…”

Visualising mental representations: A primer on noise-based reverse correlation in social psychology

“…Compared to other implementations, such as photo averaging (reviewed in Sutherland, Oldmeadow, & Young, 2016) or those using computer-generated faces (reviewed in Jack & Schyns, 2017;Todorov et al, 2011), the noise-based implementation places the least constraints on the stimulus set. This allows the most freedom for features to appear in the CI that researchers did not deem relevant a priori.…”

Trait Ratings for the Radboud Faces Database

“…Here, additional trait ratings for all 39 models of the RaFD's Caucasian Adult Subset (neutral expression, frontal gaze) are presented. The models were rated on nine trait dimensions (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008;Sutherland et al, 2013;Sutherland, Oldmeadow, & Young, 2016): trustworthiness, dominance, attractiveness, competence, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. …”