Perceptions of facial dominance, trustworthiness and attractiveness predict managerial pay awards in experimental tasks

Decoding the language of first impressions: Comparing models of first impressions of faces derived from free-text descriptions and trait ratings

First impressions formed from facial appearance predict important social outcomes. Existing models of these impressions indicate they are underpinned by dimensions of Valence and Dominance, and are typically derived by applying data reduction methods to explicit ratings of faces for a range of traits. However, this approach is potentially problematic because the trait ratings may not fully capture the dimensions on which people spontaneously assess faces. Here, we used natural language processing to extract 'topics' directly from participants' free-text descriptions (i.e., their first impressions) of 2222 face images. Two topics emerged, reflecting first impressions related to positive emotional valence and warmth (Topic 1) and negative emotional valence and potential threat (Topic 2). Next, we investigated how these topics were related to Valence and Dominance components derived from explicit trait ratings. Collectively, these components explained only ~44% of the variance in the topics extracted from free-text descriptions and suggested that first impressions are underpinned by correlated valence dimensions that subsume the content of existing trait-rating-based models. Natural language offers a promising new avenue for understanding social cognition, and future work can examine the predictive utility of natural language and traditional data-driven models for impressions in varying social contexts.

Do looks matter in supply chain contracting? An experimental study

We present results of an experiment designed to reveal the "face effect" on pricing behavior in a supply chain game. In particular, we study the variation in wholesale prices driven by subjective judgments of three facial traits-attractiveness, trustworthiness, and dominance-of a retailer's face and own appearance. Our experimental data suggest that the distributions of decisions in settings whether individuals see, or not see, retailers' faces are not equivalent. Furthermore, we find the complex dependencies between decision behaviors and facial traits. Subjective evaluations of facial traits, both self-reported and others, have a significant effect on the selected decisions.

Gender and Context-Specific Effects of Vocal Dominance and Trustworthiness on Leadership Decisions

Objective

The evolutionary-contingency hypothesis, which suggests that preferences for leaders are context-dependent, has found relatively consistent support from research investigating leadership decisions based on facial pictures. Here, we test whether these results transfer to leadership decisions based on voice recordings. We examined how dominance and trustworthiness perceptions relate to leadership decisions in wartime and peacetime contexts and whether effects differ by a speaker’s gender. Further, we investigate two cues that might be related to leadership decisions, as well as dominance and trustworthiness perceptions: voice pitch and strength of regional accent.

Methods

We conducted a preregistered online study with 125 raters and recordings of 120 speakers (61 men, 59 women) from different parts in Germany. Raters were randomly distributed into four rating conditions: dominance, trustworthiness, hypothetical vote (wartime) and hypothetical vote (peacetime).

Results

We find that dominant speakers were more likely to be voted for in a wartime context while trustworthy speakers were more likely to be voted for in a peacetime context. Voice pitch functions as a main cue for dominance perceptions, while strength of regional accent functions as a main cue for trustworthiness perceptions.

Conclusions

This study adds to a stream of research that suggests that (a) people’s voices contain important information based on which we form social impressions and (b) we prefer different types of leaders across different contexts. Future research should disentangle effects of gender bias in leadership decisions and investigate underlying mechanisms that influence how people’s voices contribute to achieving social status.

The deficit bias: Candidate gender differences in the relative importance of facial stereotypic qualities to leadership hiring

Recent findings highlight two facets of the two fundamental stereotype content dimensions of agency (i.e., 'dominance' and 'competence') and communality (i.e., 'morality' and 'sociability'; e.g., Abele et al., 2016) with implications for understanding gender inequality in the workplace (e.g., Prati et al., 2019). Extending this research and contributing to the facial first impressions literature, we examined how these facets of agency and communality when inferred from White men's and women's faces, along with attractiveness, influence their leadership suitability. In three studies in the United Kingdom (total N = 424), using student and working samples and two managerial descriptions, we found an unexpected pattern of results, supported by an internal meta-analysis: attractiveness and competence were the most important predictors of hirability for all candidates. For women, dominance was the next most important predictor; for men, morality and sociability were more important than dominance. Moreover, morality and sociability were more important in evaluating men than women, while dominance was more important in evaluating women than men. Findings are discussed in terms of a 'deficit bias', whereby the qualities women and men are considered to lack - dominance for women, morality, and sociability for men - may be given more weight when evaluating their leadership suitability.

The Ginevra de' Benci Effect: Competence, Morality, and Attractiveness Inferred From Faces Predict Hiring Decisions for Women

The present study examined the role of morality, competence, and attractiveness as perceived from faces in predicting hiring decisions for men and women. Results showed that for both female and male applicants, facial competence significantly predicted the hiring decision directly and indirectly, through the mediation of the overall impression. Decisions concerning female applicants were, however, significantly predicted by multiple dimensions-that is, facial morality, facial competence, and attractiveness-with the mediation of the overall impression. Facial competence was the only significant predictor of impression and, in turn, hiring decision about men. These findings resonate the motto Virtutem forma decorat, "Beauty adorns virtue," painted by Leonardo da Vinci on the reverse side of the portrait of Ginevra de' Benci, and suggest that women's chances of getting a job are less than those of men whenever they do not show a moral and competent and attractive face.

Dishonesty as a signal of trustworthiness: Honesty-Humility and trustworthy dishonesty

Trustworthiness is a foundation of well-functioning relationships and societies, and thus often perceived as a socially normative behaviour. Correspondingly, a broad array of research found that people tend to act in a trustworthy way and signal their trustworthiness to others, and that trustworthiness is rewarded. Herein, we explore whether this motivation to behave trustworthily can have socially undesirable effects in terms of leading to dishonesty targeted at fulfilling the trustor's expectations (i.e. trustworthy dishonesty). Furthermore, we examine how the basic trait of Honesty-Humility, which has consistently been found to be linked to both higher honesty and trustworthiness, relates to trustworthy dishonesty, where honesty and trustworthiness are at odds. Specifically, we conducted three pre-registered studies (N = 7080), introducing a novel behavioural game, the lying-trust game, where participants had a chance to lie to act trustworthily. In two studies, we found that, when offered 'full trust', participants high in Honesty-Humility (i.e. the top 10%) engaged in trustworthy dishonesty, i.e. lied in order to avoid maximizing their own incentive at the cost of minimizing the incentive of their trustor. This pattern was not present when the trustor offered minimal trust only, as well as among participants low in Honesty-Humility (i.e. the bottom 10%).

The effects of face attractiveness on face memory depend on both age of perceiver and age of face

Face attractiveness can influence memory for previously seen faces. This effect has been shown to differ for young and older perceivers. Two parallel studies examined the moderation of both the age of the face and the age of the perceiver on the relationship between facial attractiveness and face memory. Study 1 comprised 29 young and 31 older participants; Study 2 comprised 25 young and 24 older participants. In both studies, participants completed an incidental face encoding and a surprise old/new recognition test with young and older faces that varied in face attractiveness. Face attractiveness affected memory for young but not older faces. In addition, young but not older perceivers showed a linear effect of facial attractiveness on memory for young faces, while both young and older perceivers showed a quadratic effect on memory for young faces. These findings extend previous work by demonstrating that the effect of facial attractiveness on face memory is a function of both the age of the perceiver and the age of the face. Factors that could account for such moderations of face and perceiver age on the associations between face attractiveness and face memory are discussed (e.g. age differences in social goals and face similarity/distinctiveness).

Dynamic interactive theory as a domain-general account of social perception

The perception of social categories, emotions, and personality traits from others' faces each have been studied extensively but in relative isolation. We synthesize emerging findings suggesting that, in each of these domains of social perception, both a variety of bottom-up facial features and top-down social cognitive processes play a part in driving initial perceptions. Among such top-down processes, social-conceptual knowledge in particular can have a fundamental structuring role in how we perceive others' faces. Extending the Dynamic Interactive framework (Freeman & Ambady, 2011), we outline a perspective whereby the perception of social categories, emotions, and traits from faces can all be conceived as emerging from an integrated system relying on domain-general cognitive properties. Such an account of social perception would envision perceptions to be a rapid, but gradual, process of negotiation between the variety of visual cues inherent to a person and the social cognitive knowledge an individual perceiver brings to the perceptual process. We describe growing evidence in support of this perspective as well as its theoretical implications for social psychology.

Linking men's voice pitch to actual and perceived trustworthiness across domains

Previous research suggests that judgments about a male speaker's trustworthiness vary due to the speaker's voice pitch (mean F0) and differ across domains. However, mixed results in terms of the direction and extent of such effects have been reported. Moreover, no study so far has investigated whether men's mean F0 is, indeed, a valid cue to their self-reported and behavioral trustworthiness, and whether trustworthiness judgments are accurate. We tested the relation between mean F0 and actual general, economic, and mating-related trustworthiness in 181 men, as well as trustworthiness judgments of 95 perceivers across all three domains. Analyses show that men's mean F0 is not related to Honesty–Humility (as a trait indicator of general trustworthiness), trustworthy intentions, or trust game behavior, suggesting no relation of mean F0 to general or economic trustworthiness. In contrast, results suggest that mean F0 might be related to mating-related trustworthiness (as indicated by self-reported relationship infidelity). However, lower mean F0 was judged as more trustworthy in economic but less trustworthy in mating-related domains and rather weakly related to judgments of general trustworthiness. Trustworthiness judgments were not accurate for general or economic trustworthiness, but exploratory analyses suggest that women might be able to accurately judge men's relationship infidelity based on their voice pitch. Next to these analyses, we report exploratory analyses involving and controlling for additional voice parameters.

The Role of Face and Voice Cues in Predicting the Outcome of Student Representative Elections

First impressions formed after seeing someone's face or hearing their voice can affect many social decisions, including voting in political elections. Despite the many studies investigating the independent contribution of face and voice cues to electoral success, their integration is still not well understood. Here, we examine a novel electoral context, student representative ballots, allowing us to test the generalizability of previous studies. We also examine the independent contributions of visual, auditory, and audiovisual information to social judgments of the candidates, and their relationship to election outcomes. Results showed that perceived trustworthiness was the only trait significantly related to election success. These findings contrast with previous reports on the importance of perceived competence using audio or visual cues only in the context of national political elections. The present study highlights the role of real-world context and emphasizes the importance of using ecologically valid stimulus presentation in understanding real-life social judgment.

Honest Signals of Status: Facial and Bodily Dominance Are Related to Success in Physical but Not Nonphysical Competition

Recent studies suggest that both facial and bodily dominance promote high status positions and predict status-seeking behaviors such as aggression and social dominance. An evolutionarily relevant context in which associations between these dominance signals and status outcomes may be prevalent are face-to-face status contests. The present study examined whether facial and bodily dominance predicted success in dyadic competitions (one physical discipline, arm wrestling, and three nonphysical disciplines) in men (N = 125) in a controlled laboratory setting. Men's bodies and faces were independently rated for physical dominance, and associations of these ratings with contest outcomes as well as mediating and moderating variables (such as physical strength, body height, trait dominance, baseline and reactive testosterone) were examined. Both facial and bodily dominance positively predicted success in the physical discipline, mediated by physical strength, but not in the three nonphysical disciplines. Our findings demonstrate that facial and bodily physical dominance may be honest signals for men's formidability and hence status potential, at least in a physically competitive context.

First Impression Misleads Emotion Recognition

Recognition of others’ emotions is a key life ability that guides one’s own choices and behavior, and it hinges on the recognition of others’ facial cues. Independent studies indicate that facial appearance-based evaluations affect social behavior, but little is known about how facial appearance-based trustworthiness evaluations influence the recognition of specific emotions. We tested the hypothesis that first impressions based on facial appearance affect the recognition of basic emotions. A total of 150 participants completed a dynamic emotion recognition task. In a within-subjects design, the participants viewed videos of individuals with trustworthy-looking, neutral, or untrustworthy-looking faces gradually and continuously displaying basic emotions (happiness, anger, fear, and sadness). The participants’ accuracy and speed in recognizing the emotions were measured. Untrustworthy-looking faces decreased participants’ emotion recognition accuracy and speed, across emotion types. In addition, faces that elicited a positive inference of trustworthiness enhanced emotion recognition speed of fear and sadness, emotional expressions that signal another’s distress and modulate prosocial behavior. These findings suggest that facial appearance-based inferences may interfere with the ability to accurately and rapidly recognize others’ basic emotions.

Negative Effects of Makeup Use on Perceptions of Leadership Ability Across Two Ethnicities

Cosmetics alter social perceptions, and prior work suggests that cosmetic use may aid female intrasexual competition, making women appear more dominant to other women but more prestigious to other men. It is unclear whether these findings reflect general improvements in perceptions of traits related to women’s dominance or if they are specific to mating contexts only. Here, across two ethnicities, we examined effects of cosmetics used for a social night out on perceptions of women’s leadership ability, a trait that denotes competence/high status outside of mating contexts. Participants of African and Caucasian ethnicity judged faces for leadership ability where half of the trials differed in ethnicity (own- vs. other-ethnicity face pairs) and the subtlety of the color manipulation (50% vs. 100%). Regardless of the participant’s sex or ethnicity, makeup used for a social night out had a negative effect on perceptions of women’s leadership ability. Our findings suggest that, in prior work, women are afforded traits related to dominance, as makeup enhances perceptions of traits that are important for successful female mating competition but not other components of social dominance such as leadership.

Does the implicit models of leadership influence the scanning of other-race faces in adults?

The current study aims to identify the relationships between implicit leadership theoretical (ILT) prototypes / anti-prototype and five facial features (i.e., nasion, upper nose, lower nose, and upper lip) of a leader from a different race than respondents. A sample of 81 Asian respondents viewed a 30-second video of a Caucasian female who in a non-engaging manner talked about her career achievements. As participants watch the video, their eye movements were recorded via an eye tracking devise. While previous research has identified that ILT influences perceptional and attitudinal ratings of leaders, the current study extends these findings by confirming the impact of ILT on the gaze patterns of other race participants, who appear to adopt system one type thinking. This study advances our understanding in how cognitive categories or schemas influence the physicality of individuals (i.e., eye gaze or movements). Finally, this study confirms that individual ILT factors have a relationship with the eye movements of participants and suggests future research directions.

Own Attractiveness and Dissatisfaction With Physical Appearance Independently Predict the Salience of Facial Cues to Size When Women Judge Other Women's Attractiveness

While facial cues to body size are a valid guide to health and attractiveness, it is unclear whether the observer's own condition predicts the salience of (low) size as a cue to female attractiveness. The current study examines whether measures related to women's own attractiveness/appearance predict the extent to which they use facial cues to size to differentiate other women on the attractiveness dimension. Women completed a body mass index (BMI) preference task, where they indicated their preference for high- versus low-BMI versions of the same woman, provided data to calculate their BMI and completed various psychometric measures (self-rated attractiveness/health, dissatisfaction with physical appearance). Here, attractive women and women who were dissatisfied with their own appearance were more likely to associate facial cues to low body size with high attractiveness. These data suggest that psychological factors related to women's appearance shape their evaluations of other women based on cues to size. Such variation in attractiveness judgements may function to reduce the costs of female competition for resources, for example, by identifying "quality" rivals or excluding others based on cues to size.

Own attractiveness and perceived relationship quality shape sensitivity in women's memory for other men on the attractiveness dimension

Although recent work suggests that opposite-sex facial attractiveness is less salient in memory when individuals are in a committed romantic relationship, romantic relationship quality can vary over time. In light of this, we tested whether activating concerns about romantic relationship quality strengthens memory for attractive faces. Partnered women were exposed briefly to faces manipulated in shape cues to attractiveness before either being asked to think about a moment of emotional closeness or distance in their current relationship. We measured sensitivity in memory for faces as the extent to which they recognized correct versions of studied faces over versions of the same person altered to look either more or less-attractive than their original (i.e., studied) version. Contrary to predictions, high relationship quality strengthened hit rate for faces regardless of the sex or attractiveness of the face. In general, women's memories were more sensitive to attractiveness in women, but were biased toward attractiveness in male faces, both when responding to unfamiliar faces and versions of familiar faces that were more attractive than the original male identity from the learning phase. However, findings varied according to self-rated attractiveness and a psychometric measure of the quality of their current relationship. Attractive women were more sensitive to attractiveness in men, while their less-attractive peers had a stronger bias to remember women as more-attractive and men as less-attractive than their original image respectively. Women in better-quality romantic relationships had stronger positive biases toward, and false memories for, attractive men. Our findings suggest a sophisticated pattern of sensitivity and bias in women's memory for facial cues to quality that varies systematically according to factors that may alter the costs of female mating competition ('market demand') and relationship maintenance.

To Strike a Pose: No Stereotype Backlash for Power Posing Women

Power posing, the adoption of open and powerful postures, has effects that parallel those of actual social power. This study explored the social evaluation of adopting powerful vs. powerless body postures in men and women regarding perceived warmth, competence, and the likelihood of eliciting admiration, envy, pity, and contempt. Previous findings suggest that the display of power by women may have side effects due to gender stereotyping, namely reduced warmth ratings and negative emotional reactions. An experiment (N = 2,473) asked participants to rate pictures of men and women who adopted high-power or low-power body postures. High-power posers were rated higher on competence, admiration, envy, and contempt compared to low-power posers, whereas the opposite was true for pity. There was no impact of power posing on perceived warmth. Contrary to expectations, the poser's gender did not moderate any of the effects. These findings suggest that non-verbal displays of power do influence fundamental dimensions of social perception and their accompanying emotional reactions but result in comparably positive and negative evaluations for both genders.