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Ferdenzi C, Fournel A, Baldovini N, Poupon D, Ligout D, Thévenet M, Bouet R, Bensafi M. Influence of the human body odor compound HMHA on face perception. Perception 2024; 53:180-196. [PMID: 38216326 DOI: 10.1177/03010066231222473] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2024]
Abstract
Body odors convey information about the individuals, but the mechanisms are not fully understood yet. As far as human reproduction is concerned, molecules that are produced in sexually dimorphic amounts could be possible chemosignals. 3-hydroxy-3-methylhexanoic acid (HMHA) is one of them-more typical of men. Here, we investigated the possibility that the perception of gender and attractiveness in human faces could be implicitly influenced by this compound. Clearly feminine, ambiguous and clearly masculine faces were primed with an odor of HMHA, a control odor or air. Based on 100-ms face presentation, 40 raters had to identify the face's gender as quickly as possible and provide attractiveness evaluations. 3-hydroxy-3-methylhexanoic acid tended to be perceived as less pleasant and induced lower sniff duration in women compared with men. As to the effects of HMHA on face perception (vs. control conditions), we found that gender identification and the associated response time were unaffected by HMHA. Attractiveness of the faces, however, increased in presence of HMHA, but not in a sex-specific manner and only for unattractive faces with ambiguous gender. In sum, this study found no evidence in favor of a possible role of this sexually dimorphic compound in intrasexual competition nor in intersexual attraction.
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Anderson SR, Gianola M, Medina NA, Perry JM, Wager TD, Losin EAR. Doctor trustworthiness influences pain and its neural correlates in virtual medical interactions. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:3421-3436. [PMID: 36001114 PMCID: PMC10068271 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2022] [Revised: 06/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Trust is an important component of the doctor-patient relationship and is associated with improved patient satisfaction and health outcomes. Previously, we reported that patient feelings of trust and similarity toward their clinician predicted reductions in evoked pain in response to painful heat stimulations. In the present study, we investigated the brain mechanisms underlying this effect. We used face stimuli previously developed using a data-driven computational modeling approach that differ in perceived trustworthiness and superimposed them on bodies dressed in doctors' attire. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, participants (n = 42) underwent a series of virtual medical interactions with these doctors during which they received painful heat stimulation as an analogue of a painful diagnostic procedure. Participants reported increased pain when receiving painful heat stimulations from low-trust doctors, which was accompanied by increased activity in pain-related brain regions and a multivariate pain-predictive neuromarker. Findings suggest that patient trust in their doctor may have tangible impacts on pain and point to a potential brain basis for trust-related reductions in pain through the modulation of brain circuitry associated with the sensory-discriminative and affective-motivational dimensions of pain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven R Anderson
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables, FL 33146-0751, USA
| | - Morgan Gianola
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables, FL 33146-0751, USA
| | - Natalia A Medina
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables, FL 33146-0751, USA
| | - Jenna M Perry
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables, FL 33146-0751, USA
| | - Tor D Wager
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, 3 Maynard St, Hanover, NH 03755-3565, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Reynolds Losin
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables, FL 33146-0751, USA
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Minemoto K, Ueda Y. Face identity and facial expression representations with adaptation paradigms: New directions for potential applications. Front Psychol 2022; 13:988497. [PMID: 36600709 PMCID: PMC9806277 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.988497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Adaptation and aftereffect are well-known procedures for exploring our neural representation of visual stimuli. It has been reported that they occur in face identity, facial expressions, and low-level visual features. This method has two primary advantages. One is to reveal the common or shared process of faces, that is, the overlapped or discrete representation of face identities or facial expressions. The other is to investigate the coding system or theory of face processing that underlies the ability to recognize faces. This study aims to organize recent research to guide the reader into the field of face adaptation and its aftereffect and to suggest possible future expansions in the use of this paradigm. To achieve this, we reviewed the behavioral short-term aftereffect studies on face identity (i.e., who it is) and facial expressions (i.e., what expressions such as happiness and anger are expressed), and summarized their findings about the neural representation of faces. First, we summarize the basic characteristics of face aftereffects compared to simple visual features to clarify that facial aftereffects occur at a different stage and are not inherited or combinations of low-level visual features. Next, we introduce the norm-based coding hypothesis, which is one of the theories used to represent face identity and facial expressions, and adaptation is a commonly used procedure to examine this. Subsequently, we reviewed studies that applied this paradigm to immature or impaired face recognition (i.e., children and individuals with autism spectrum disorder or prosopagnosia) and examined the relationships between their poor recognition performance and representations. Moreover, we reviewed studies dealing with the representation of non-presented faces and social signals conveyed via faces and discussed that the face adaptation paradigm is also appropriate for these types of examinations. Finally, we summarize the research conducted to date and propose a new direction for the face adaptation paradigm.
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Effects of social context on facial trustworthiness judgments. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-04143-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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Li N, Liu N. The Nonlinear and Gender-Related Relationships of Face Attractiveness and Typicality With Perceived Trustworthiness. Front Psychol 2021; 12:656084. [PMID: 34335368 PMCID: PMC8316726 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.656084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
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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Affiliation(s)
- Nan Li
- School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.,State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
| | - Ning Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
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Jiang X, Gossack-Keenan K, Pell MD. To believe or not to believe? How voice and accent information in speech alter listener impressions of trust. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2019; 73:55-79. [DOI: 10.1177/1747021819865833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Our decision to believe what another person says can be influenced by vocally expressed confidence in speech and by whether the speaker–listener are members of the same social group. The dynamic effects of these two information sources on neurocognitive processes that promote believability impressions from vocal cues are unclear. Here, English Canadian listeners were presented personal statements ( She has access to the building) produced in a confident or doubtful voice by speakers of their own dialect (in-group) or speakers from two different “out-groups” (regional or foreign-accented English). Participants rated how believable the speaker is for each statement and event-related potentials (ERPs) were analysed from utterance onset. Believability decisions were modulated by both the speaker’s vocal confidence level and their perceived in-group status. For in-group speakers, ERP effects revealed an early differentiation of vocally expressed confidence (i.e., N100, P200), highlighting the motivational significance of doubtful voices for drawing believability inferences. These early effects on vocal confidence perception were qualitatively different or absent when speakers had an accent; evaluating out-group voices was associated with increased demands on contextual integration and re-analysis of a non-native representation of believability (i.e., increased N400, late negativity response). Accent intelligibility and experience with particular out-group accents each influenced how vocal confidence was processed for out-group speakers. The N100 amplitude was sensitive to out-group attitudes and predicted actual believability decisions for certain out-group speakers. We propose a neurocognitive model in which vocal identity information (social categorization) dynamically influences how vocal expressions are decoded and used to derive social inferences during person perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoming Jiang
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Department of Psychology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Kira Gossack-Keenan
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Marc D Pell
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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Hermens F, Golubickis M, Macrae CN. Eye movements while judging faces for trustworthiness and dominance. PeerJ 2018; 6:e5702. [PMID: 30324015 PMCID: PMC6186410 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 09/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Past studies examining how people judge faces for trustworthiness and dominance have suggested that they use particular facial features (e.g. mouth features for trustworthiness, eyebrow and cheek features for dominance ratings) to complete the task. Here, we examine whether eye movements during the task reflect the importance of these features. We here compared eye movements for trustworthiness and dominance ratings of face images under three stimulus configurations: Small images (mimicking large viewing distances), large images (mimicking face to face viewing), and a moving window condition (removing extrafoveal information). Whereas first area fixated, dwell times, and number of fixations depended on the size of the stimuli and the availability of extrafoveal vision, and varied substantially across participants, no clear task differences were found. These results indicate that gaze patterns for face stimuli are highly individual, do not vary between trustworthiness and dominance ratings, but are influenced by the size of the stimuli and the availability of extrafoveal vision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frouke Hermens
- School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK
| | | | - C. Neil Macrae
- School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
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Lee AJ, Wright MJ, Martin NG, Keller MC, Zietsch BP. Facial Trustworthiness is Associated with Heritable Aspects of Face Shape. ADAPTIVE HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND PHYSIOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s40750-017-0073-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Carragher DJ, Thomas NA, Nicholls MER. Is trustworthiness lateralized in the face? Evidence from a trust game. Laterality 2017; 23:20-38. [PMID: 28276875 DOI: 10.1080/1357650x.2017.1298120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
A turn of the head can be used to convey or conceal emotion, as the left side of the face is more expressive than the right. As the left cheek moves more when smiling, the present study investigated whether perceived trustworthiness is lateralized to the left cheek, using a trust game paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to share money with male and female "virtual partners." Left-left or right-right composite faces were used to represent the partners. There were no differences in the amount shared based on composite face, suggesting trustworthiness is not lateralized in the face. However, there was a robust effect whereby female partners were perceived to be significantly more trustworthy than males. In Experiment 2, the virtual partners presented either the left or the right cheek prominently. As in Experiment 1, the amount shared with the partners did not change depending on the cheek presented. Interestingly, female partners were again sent significantly more money than males. We found no support for lateralized trustworthiness in the face, suggesting that asymmetries in the face are not large enough to influence trustworthiness judgements. Instead, more stable facial features, such as sex-typical characteristics, appear to influence perceived trustworthiness.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nicole A Thomas
- a School of Psychology , Flinders University , Adelaide , Australia
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Prete G, Laeng B, Tommasi L. Modulating adaptation to emotional faces by spatial frequency filtering. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2016; 82:310-323. [DOI: 10.1007/s00426-016-0830-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2016] [Accepted: 11/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Valentine T, Lewis MB, Hills PJ. Face-Space: A Unifying Concept in Face Recognition Research. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2016; 69:1996-2019. [DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2014.990392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
The concept of a multidimensional psychological space, in which faces can be represented according to their perceived properties, is fundamental to the modern theorist in face processing. Yet the idea was not clearly expressed until 1991. The background that led to the development of face-space is explained, and its continuing influence on theories of face processing is discussed. Research that has explored the properties of the face-space and sought to understand caricature, including facial adaptation paradigms, is reviewed. Face-space as a theoretical framework for understanding the effect of ethnicity and the development of face recognition is evaluated. Finally, two applications of face-space in the forensic setting are discussed. From initially being presented as a model to explain distinctiveness, inversion, and the effect of ethnicity, face-space has become a central pillar in many aspects of face processing. It is currently being developed to help us understand adaptation effects with faces. While being in principle a simple concept, face-space has shaped, and continues to shape, our understanding of face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Valentine
- Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK
| | | | - Peter J. Hills
- Psychology Research Group, University of Bournemouth, Poole, UK
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Pavlova MA, Mayer A, Hösl F, Sokolov AN. Faces on Her and His Mind: Female and Likable. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0157636. [PMID: 27352016 PMCID: PMC4924832 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2015] [Accepted: 06/02/2016] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Faces are a valuable source of non-verbal information for daily life social interaction. Mounting evidence points to gender specificity in face perception. Here we search for the factors that can potentially trigger gender differences in tuning to faces. By using a set of Face-n-Food images slightly bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style, we examine: (i) whether face resemblance is linked to gender specific face impression, and, if so, whether this association is perceiver gender specific; and (ii) whether images most resembling a face are also most likable for female and male perceivers. First, in a spontaneous recognition task, participants were shown a set of Face-n-Food images in a predetermined order from the least to most resembling a face. Then in a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) task, participants judged whether each face appeared for them (i) either female or male (Exp. 1); or (ii) either likable or unlikable (Exp. 2). Remarkably, face resemblance is closely connected to gender specific impressions: images more resembling a face elicit also more female-face responses. This link is not perceiver gender specific as it occurs for both females and males. Moreover, face resemblance is positively linked to face likability, but this holds true only for female perceivers. The findings shed light on gender specificity in tuning to faces, and help to clarify abnormalities of the social brain in neurodevelopmental, psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina A. Pavlova
- Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Medical School, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Annika Mayer
- Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Medical School, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Franziska Hösl
- Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Medical School, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alexander N. Sokolov
- Department of Women’s Health, Women’s Health Research Institute, University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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Mattarozzi K, Todorov A, Marzocchi M, Vicari A, Russo PM. Effects of Gender and Personality on First Impression. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0135529. [PMID: 26331610 PMCID: PMC4557906 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2015] [Accepted: 07/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study explores whether and to what extent individual differences (i.e., gender and personality traits of perceiver) predict inferences of trustworthiness from emotionally neutral unfamiliar faces and the related confidence in judgment. Four hundred and ten undergraduate students participated in the study. Personality was assessed using the Big Five model (i.e., Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Openness to experience) and measures of trait anxiety and aggression. The results suggest that trustworthiness judgments are affected by the gender of the perceiver, although this effect depends on the valence of the face. Women tend to judge trustworthy-looking faces as significantly more trustworthy than men do, and this is particularly pronounced for judgments of female faces. There were no gender differences for judgments of untrustworthy-looking or neutral faces. Gender also seems to affect the confidence in judgment. Specifically, women were generally less confident than men in judging trustworthiness of unfamiliar faces. Personality also affected judgment. Both low agreeable individuals and high trait aggressive individuals tend to perceive unfamiliar faces as less trustworthy. The present findings suggest that both gender and personality traits are relevant for understanding how people evaluate the trustworthiness of others. Whom we decide to trust is a function not only of their facial features but also of gender and individual differences in personality traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katia Mattarozzi
- Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Alexander Todorov
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States of America
| | | | - Alba Vicari
- Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Paolo Maria Russo
- Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- * E-mail:
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