scholarly journals Uncovering mental representations of smiled speech using reverse correlation

2018 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. EL19-EL24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Ponsot ◽  
Pablo Arias ◽  
Jean-Julien Aucouturier
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Reverse Correlation

The Impact of Visual Stereotypes on Judgments about Rape

2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-140
Author(s):  
Robert Busching ◽  
Johannes Lutz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
Rape Myth ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Correlation Technique ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Legal Judgments ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Legally irrelevant information like facial features is used to form judgments about rape cases. Using a reverse-correlation technique, it is possible to visualize criminal stereotypes and test whether these representations influence judgments. In the first step, images of the stereotypical faces of a rapist, a thief, and a lifesaver were generated. These images showed a clear distinction between the lifesaver and the two criminal representations, but the criminal representations were rather similar. In the next step, the images were presented together with rape scenarios, and participants (N = 153) indicated the defendant’s level of liability. Participants with high rape myth acceptance scores attributed a lower level of liability to a defendant who resembled a stereotypical lifesaver. However, no specific effects of the image of the stereotypical rapist compared to the stereotypical thief were found. We discuss the findings with respect to the influence of visual stereotypes on legal judgments and the nature of these mental representations.

scholarly journals Blatant dehumanization in the mind's eye: Prevalent even among those who explicitly reject it?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D Petsko ◽  
Ryan Lei ◽  
Jonas R. Kunst ◽  
Emile Bruneau ◽  
Nour Kteily
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
The Political ◽  
Perceptual Task ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Political Right ◽  
Mind's Eye

Research suggests that some people, particularly those on the political right, have a tendency to blatantly dehumanize low-status groups. However, these findings have largely relied on self-report measures, which are notoriously subject to social desirability concerns. To better understand just how widely blatant forms of intergroup dehumanization might extend, the present paper leverages an unobtrusive, data-driven perceptual task to examine how U.S. respondents mentally represent ‘Americans’ vs. ‘Arabs’ (a low-status group in the U.S. that is often explicitly targeted with blatant dehumanization). Data from two reverse-correlation experiments (original N = 108; pre-registered replication N = 336) and seven rating studies (N = 2,301) suggest that U.S. respondents’ mental representations of Arabs are significantly more dehumanizing than their representations of Americans. Furthermore, analyses indicate that this phenomenon is not reducible to a general tendency for our sample to mentally represent Arabs more negatively than Americans. Finally, these findings reveal that blatantly dehumanizing representations of Arabs can be just as prevalent among individuals exhibiting low levels of explicit dehumanization (e.g., liberals) as among individuals exhibiting high levels of explicit dehumanization (e.g., conservatives)—a phenomenon into which exploratory analyses suggest liberals may have only limited awareness. Taken together, these results suggest that blatant dehumanization may be more widespread than previously recognized, and that it can persist even in the minds of those who explicitly reject it.

scholarly journals Mental Representations and Facial Impressions of Muslim Men in Japan From 2015 to 2017

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824402199782
Author(s):  
Jun Moriya
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Noise Pattern ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Muslim Men ◽  
The Face ◽  
Facial Representation

There is prejudice against Muslims in many nations, including Japan. This prejudice would be related to biased mental representations of Muslim faces. Moreover, in 2015, the increased news coverage linking Muslims to terrorism in Japan would have enhanced such negative mental representations. In the present study, Japanese participants were asked to imagine Muslim men, and from two faces with a random noise pattern added, participants were instructed to choose the face they imagined to be more Muslim. Typical Muslim facial representations were visualized in 2015, 2016, and 2017 by averaging all selected noise patterns using reverse correlation. The visualized representations were evaluated using the dimensions of warmth, competence, and basic emotions. The results showed that the warmth scores for the visualized facial representation were lower in 2015 than in 2017, whereas competence scores did not differ between the representations in 2015, 2016, and 2017. “Angry” and “disgusted” scores for the facial representation in 2015 were higher than those in 2017, whereas “happy” scores in 2015 were lower than those in 2017. The decreased “angry” score and increased “happy” score predicted an increase in the impression of warmth from 2015 to 2017.

When words become borders: Ingroup favoritism in perceptions and mental representations of Anglo-Canadian and Franco-Canadian faces

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 1021-1038
Author(s):  
R. Thora Bjornsdottir ◽  
Simon Yeretsian ◽  
Greg L. West ◽  
Nicholas O. Rule
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Structural Similarity ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Subjective Ratings ◽  
Correlation Methods ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Linguistic Groups ◽  
Multiple Languages ◽  
Ingroup Favoritism

Language is critical to social identity, including nationality. However, some nations encompass multiple languages, raising questions about how their citizens perceive members of their national versus linguistic groups. We explored perceptions of Canadian nationality, which consists of two linguistic groups: Anglo-Canadians and Franco-Canadians. In Study 1, we used reverse correlation methods to visualize how Anglo- and Franco-Canadians mentally represent the faces of linguistic ingroup and outgroup members, and of Canadians in general. Structural similarity analyses and subjective ratings of the resulting images showed that both groups mentally represented Canadians as more similar to their own linguistic ingroup. In Study 2, Anglo-Canadians and Franco-Canadians rated photos of real Anglo- and Franco-Canadian targets. Both samples showed some ingroup favoritism when inferring their traits but only Anglo-Canadians could accurately differentiate group members. Differences between Anglo-Canadians and Franco-Canadians therefore extend beyond language, with linguistic groups impacting impressions before any words are spoken.

scholarly journals Someone Like You? Modelling Face Memory Reveals Task-generalizable Representations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiayu Zhan ◽  
Oliver G. B. Garrod ◽  
Nicola van Rijsbergen ◽  
Philippe schyns
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Identity Information ◽  
Face Identity ◽  
Perceptual Judgments ◽  
Information Contents ◽  
Processing Mechanisms ◽  
Age And Sex

Current theories of cognition are cast in terms of information processing mechanisms that use mental representations. For example, consider the mechanisms of face identification that use mental representations to identify familiar faces under various conditions of pose, illumination and ageing, or to draw resemblance between family members. Providing an explanation of these information processing mechanisms thus relies on showing how the actual information contents of these representations are used. Yet, these representational contents are rarely characterized, which in turn hinders knowledge of mechanisms. Here, we address this pervasive gap by characterizing the detailed contents of mental representations of familiar faces using a new methodological approach. We used a unique generative model of face identity information combined with perceptual judgments and reverse correlation to model the 3D representational contents of 4 familiar faces in 14 participants. We then demonstrated the validity of these contents using everyday perceptual tasks that generalize face identity and resemblance judgments to new viewpoints, age and sex with a new group of participants. Our work highlights that such models of mental representations are critical to understanding generalization behavior and for characterizing the information processing mechanisms that must use them.

scholarly journals A multimethod approach to measuring mental representations of threatening others

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Michael Michalak ◽  
Joshua Ackerman
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Correlation Method ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Threat Processing ◽  
Multimethod Approach ◽  
Threat Cues ◽  
Multi Method Approach ◽  
Method Approach

How do people mentally represent distinct interpersonal threats? Across human history, interpersonal threats such as infectious disease and violence have posed powerful selection pressures. Such pressures selected for psychological systems that help identify and reduce threats posed by other people. In the case of infectious disease, psychology researchers have found that such systems respond to a variety of infection cues (e.g., rashes, swelling) as well as cues that merely resemble infection cues (e.g., birthmarks, obesity). Are such cues part of people’s mental representations, and if so, are those cues unique to infection representations or are they included in representations of other threats? Using a multi-method approach, we find that when participants listed traits or drew mental representations of threat, they perceived infected and violent others to differ along threat-specific features. However, when using a data-driven, reverse correlation method that restricted participants from deliberating on and editing their representations, participants generated mental images that were similar on many of the features that both researchers and laypeople expect to distinguish infection and violence threats. These findings suggest our understanding of threat processing may suffer from a disconnect between the threat cues derived from the expectations of researchers and those revealed when expectations are constrained.

scholarly journals Good Cop, Bad Cop: Race-Based Differences in Mental Representations of Police

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1205-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Paige Lloyd ◽  
Mattea Sim ◽  
Evans Smalley ◽  
Michael J. Bernstein ◽  
Kurt Hugenberg
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Citizen Interactions ◽  
Correlation Procedure

The current work investigates race-based biases in conceptualization of the facial appearance of police. We employ a reverse correlation procedure to demonstrate that Black Americans, relative to White Americans, conceptualize police officers’ faces as more negative, less positive, and more dominant. We further find that these differential representations have implications for interactions with police. When naïve participants (of various races) viewed images of police officers generated by Black Americans (relative to those generated by White Americans), they responded with greater anticipated anxiety and reported more fight-or-flight behavioral intentions. Across four studies, findings suggest Black and White Americans conceptualize police and police–citizen interactions fundamentally differently. These findings have important theoretical (e.g., using reverse correlation to document the mental representations held by minority group members) and practical implications (e.g., identifying race-based differences in representations of police that may affect community–police relations).

The Face of Suspicion

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 953-960 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Paige Lloyd ◽  
Jonathan W. Kunstman ◽  
Taylor Tuscherer ◽  
Michael J. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representations ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Intergroup Dynamics ◽  
Stimulus Effect ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rule Out

Because Whites use positivity to conceal bias, people of color may question whether Whites’ positivity is genuine. We predicted that those suspicious of Whites’ motives may mentally represent Whites as less trustworthy and more hostile than those low in suspicion. We tested these predictions using reverse correlation. First, we examined high- and low-suspicion Black participants’ mental representations of Whites using neutrally expressed (Study 1a) and smiling (Study 2a) White base faces. In Study 2b, we compared suspicious Black participants’ mental representations of Whites to a randomly generated control. In Study 2c, we extend these results to perceptions of smile authenticity and rule out a potential stimulus effect. The results suggest that compared to unsuspicious participants and controls, suspicious Black participants hold less trustworthy, less authentic, and sometimes more hostile representations of Whites. Suspicion’s effect on intergroup dynamics may therefore extend up the cognitive stream to the fundamental mental representations of Whites.

scholarly journals Simply Insane? Attributing Terrorism to Mental Illness (Versus Ideology) Affects Mental Representations of Race

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 1888-1902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas R. Kunst ◽  
Lisa S. Myhren ◽  
Ivuoma N. Onyeador
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Representation ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Socio Economic Status ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Extreme Violence

Mainstream media and public figures are often criticized for readily attributing terrorism committed by White perpetrators to mental illness, while attributing the same behavior committed by non-Whites to ideological motivation. Using a data-driven reverse-correlation approach, we show that attributing terrorism to mental illness results in a phenotypically more White mental representation of the perpetrator as compared with attributing terrorism to ideology or providing no information about its motivation. Importantly, we show that, because terrorists who are described as being motivated by mental illness are perceived as more White than those motivated by ideology, they are subsequently judged as less guilty for alleged terrorist activities. We present further evidence that this effect may be due to perceived Whiteness signaling higher socio-economic status, which reduces perceptions of culpability. In sum, our research demonstrates that extreme violence attributed to unintentional causes is perceptually associated with White perpetrators, leading to leniency in criminal judgments.

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