Trait evaluations of faces and voices: Comparing within- and between-person variability.

Abstract

Human faces and voices are rich sources of information that can vary in many different ways. Most of the literature on face/voice perception has focussed on understanding how people look and sound different to each other (between-person variability). However, recent studies highlight the ways in which the same person can look and sound different on different occasions (within-person variability). Across three experiments, we examined how within-and between-person variability relate to one another for social trait impressions by collecting trait ratings attributed to multiple face images and voice recordings of the same people. We find that within-person variability in social trait evaluations is at least as great as between-person variability. Using different stimulus sets across experiments, trait impressions of voices are consistently more variable within people than between people-a pattern that is only evident occasionally when judging faces. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding within-person variability, showing how judgements of the same person can vary widely on different encounters and quantify how this pattern differs for voice and face perception. The work consequently has implications for theoretical models proposing that voices can be considered 'auditory faces' and imposes limitations to the 'kernel of truth' hypothesis of trait evaluations.

The cultural learning account of first impressions

“…The clear segregation of face space and trait space allows the same trait representation (e.g., trustworthy) to be excited independently by different types of sensory input. Thus, while the TIM framework was developed to explain first impressions from faces, the same architecture may be applied to understand other types of first impression, including those based on body shape [34] and vocal cues [36,37].…”

“…In the absence of any person-specific perceptual learning, however, the representation of strangers' faces may be particularly error-prone [104]. This feature of the model provides an elegant account of why different images of the same unfamiliar face (e.g., with different poses, different lighting conditions) sometimes elicit different trait attributions [37,109]. Different poses and different lighting conditions may produce different estimates of facial appearance and thereby excite different trait profiles.…”

“…Similarly, faces that are supposedly neutral in terms of their emotional expression are judged to be more or less trustworthy when participants detect subtle traces of happiness or anger, respectively [89,110]. Relative to judgements based on invariant properties, judgements based on expression cues are more likely to vary across different images of the same person [37,109].…”

Trait impressions from voices are formed rapidly within 400ms of exposure

“…Agreement in our study appears to be overall somewhat lower compared to previous studies of trait perception from voices (e.g.,Lavan, Mileva, Burton, Young, & McGettigan, 2021;Mileva et al, 2020;McAleer et al, 2014). This lower agreement is to be expected since most other studies have used voice stimuli with linguistic content (e.g., words or sentences; but seeRezlescu et al, 2015 who used vowels), while usually also sampling longer stimulus durations (~390ms in McAleer et al, 2014; stimuli duration of several seconds for…”

Person perception from voices: Impressions of physical, trait, and social characteristics emerge with 800ms of exposure

“…Among these studies, some reports are showing that some impressions are already formed after surprisingly little exposure: For example, trait impressions and as well socially-relevant accent impressions are well-established after hearing the word "Hello" (~400ms of exposure, McAleer et al, 2014;Mahrholz et al, 2018;Purnell et al, 1999) or after exposure a single sustained vowel (Rezlescu et al, 2015). There are, however, only two studies that formally examine the time course of first impression formation from voices, including looking for the minimal exposure necessary to form impressions: For trait perception from voices, Mileva & Lavan (2021) establish that impressions of traits are indeed generally formed within 400ms, with impressions of dominance for male voices being more rapid (<50ms) and impressions of attractiveness for female voices being established by 200ms of exposure. Owren et al (2007) furthermore examined the time course over of how accuracy in gender perception from voices evolves.…”