The facial width-to-height ratio shares stronger links with judgments of aggression than with judgments of trustworthiness.

Abstract

Variation in the facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio) is associated with judgments of aggression and of trustworthiness made by observers when viewing men's faces. Although judgments of aggression and of trustworthiness are correlated, they represent distinct constructs. We thus investigated the hypothesis that judgments of aggression share stronger associations with the face ratio than judgments of trustworthiness, and that judgments of aggression mediate the link between the face ratio and trustworthiness. Across 4 separate studies, involving 129 observers rating subsets of 141 photographs (original photographs of individuals who provided consent for their use) of clean-shaven (65 faces), unshaved (22 faces), or digitized male faces (54 faces; digitized faces were creating using facial modeling software), this hypothesis was supported. The correlations between the face ratio and judgments of aggression were moderate to strong in all 4 studies (rs = .45 to .70). Reaction time was measured in Study 4: Participants judged aggression faster than trustworthiness; thus, temporal precedence also supports the hypothesis that aggression mediates the link between the face ratio and trustworthiness. Sensitivity to the face ratio may therefore be part of a perceptual mechanism specialized to assess aggressiveness rather than trustworthiness in others, likely because of the greater necessity for rapid judgments of aggressive potential than trustworthiness.

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The facial width‐to‐height ratio determines interpersonal distance preferences in the observer

“…They were a combination of the photosets of two previous studies investigating the fWHR (Carré & McCormick, 2008;Geniole, Molnar, Carré, & McCormick, 2014) (M age = 19.30, SD age = 1.53). They were a combination of the photosets of two previous studies investigating the fWHR (Carré & McCormick, 2008;Geniole, Molnar, Carré, & McCormick, 2014) (M age = 19.30, SD age = 1.53).…”

“…The stimulus material consisted of 65 grayscale photographs of Caucasian undergraduate college students. They were a combination of the photosets of two previous studies investigating the fWHR (Carré & McCormick, 2008;Geniole, Molnar, Carré, & McCormick, 2014) (M age = 19.30, SD age = 1.53). Participants were photographed in a forward-facing position while standing, with neutral facial expressions, direct gaze, and while wearing hair nets, to avoid variability related to expression and biases in social perceptions related to gaze and hair styling.…”

Does the facial width-to-height ratio map onto variability in men's testosterone concentrations?

“…Notably, numerous studies also find that perceiver ratings of aggressiveness and dominance are highly correlated with the fWHR (e.g., 2010;Short et al, 2012;Geniole et al, 2014a; see Geniole et al, 2015, for meta-analysis), suggesting that the fWHR may serve as a reliable cue to one's propensity for aggressive behavior.…”

“…For instance, the facial widthto-height ratio (fWHR)-the distance of the bizogymatic width divided by the distance between the brow and upper lip-is positively correlated with measures of aggressive behavior (Carré & McCormick, 2008;Welker et al, 2014;Lefevre et al, 2014;Goetz et al, 2013, but see Ozener, 2012and Gomez-Valdes et al, 2013, psychopathic traits (Geniole et al, 2014a;Anderl et al, 2016), achievement drive (Lewis et al, 2012), competitive success (baseball study of homeruns:…”