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First Impressions of Strangers Rely on Generalization of Behavioral Traits Associated with previously Seen Facial Features

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Abstract

Information drawn from faces at the very first encounter can be essential in guiding current and subsequent behavior. These decisions also rely on expectations about what are the characteristic features of those who can be trusted or not. After novel experiences these expectations will be revised, and the facial prototypes stored in the memory will be updated. The aim of the recent experiment was to test whether behavioral information about individuals will be transferred to composite facial images. We created composite faces of individual images which were previously presented with either positive or negative behavioral descriptions. We found that the composite made from faces shown with traits referring to high social desirability, was rated as significantly more trustworthy. We propose that exposure to faces and acquisition of socially relevant information shape facial prototypes, ensuring that the evaluation of unknown individuals reflects expectations based on real-life experiences. We further propose that this process is mediated by the generalization of behavior information and facial features, rather than the detection of visual similarity.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Foundation (grant number OTKA K112673).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, 7624 Ifjusag str. 6., Pécs, Hungary

    Ferenc Kocsor & Tamas Bereczkei

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  1. Ferenc Kocsor
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  2. Tamas Bereczkei
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Correspondence to Ferenc Kocsor.

Ethics declarations

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of Interest

Ferenc Kocsor declares that he has no conflict of interest. Tamas Bereczkei declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Appendix

Appendix

Sentence pairs describing positive behavior

  1. 1:

    He sticks by co-workers, even when they make mistakes.

    Events together with his family members have priority.

  2. 2:

    He is always there for his colleagues in case they need help.

    He is polite and cooperative.

  3. 3:

    His friends like him because of his even temper and humor.

    He is pleased by the success of his co-workers.

  4. 4:

    He is always sincere and friendly with new colleagues.

    He is trustworthy; his friends can always rely on him.

  5. 5:

    He is glad when his colleagues are successful.

    He spends plenty of time with his children, reads them stories frequently.

Sentence pairs describing negative behavior

  1. 6:

    He always gets angry when he cannot get what he wants.

    He was spotted several times kicking his dog.

  2. 7:

    He scorns colleagues when they make mistakes.

    He ran into debt because of compulsive gambling.

  3. 8:

    He physically abused his children.

    He caused car accidents several times when he was intoxicated.

  4. 9:

    He ran his family into debt because of his addiction to gambling.

    He interfered with the law couple of times.

  5. 10:

    He takes advantage of the reliance of his family and friends.

    He caused an accident under the influence of drugs.

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Kocsor, F., Bereczkei, T. First Impressions of Strangers Rely on Generalization of Behavioral Traits Associated with previously Seen Facial Features. Curr Psychol 36, 385–391 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9427-1

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