Facial Trustworthiness Perceptions Across the Adult Lifespan

This paper adopted an adult lifespan developmental approach by asking 87 young (25-39 years), 59 middle-aged (44-59 years), and 47 older (60-78 years) women and men to rate the trustworthiness of faces that systematically varied in age (young, middle-aged, older) and emotion (neutral, happy, sad, fearful, angry, disgusted) from the FACES Lifespan Database.

Not Just About Faces in Context: Face–Context Relation Moderates the Impact of Contextual Threat on Facial Trustworthiness

Recent work showed that the attribution of facial trustworthiness can be influenced by the surrounding context in which a face is embedded: contexts that convey threat make faces less trustworthy. In four studies ( N = 388, three preregistered) we tested whether face–context integration is influenced by how faces and contexts are encoded relationally. In Experiments 1a to 1c, face–context integration was stronger when threatening stimuli were attributable to the human action. Faces were judged less trustworthy when shown in threatening contexts that were ascribable (vs. non-ascribable) to the human action. In Experiment 2, we manipulated face–context relations using instructions. When instructions presented facial stimuli as belonging to the “perpetrators” of the threatening contexts, no difference with the control (no-instructions) condition was found in face–context integration. Instead, the effect was reduced when faces were presented as “victims.” We discussed the importance of considering relational reasoning when studying face–context integration.

Accuracy in Facial Trustworthiness Impressions: Kernel of Truth or Modern Physiognomy? A Meta-Analysis

Being able to identify trustworthy strangers is a critical social skill. However, whether such impressions are accurate is debatable. Critically, the field currently lacks a quantitative summary of the evidence. To address this gap, we conducted two meta-analyses. We tested whether there is a correlation between perceived and actual trustworthiness across faces, and whether perceivers show above-chance accuracy at assessing trustworthiness. Both meta-analyses revealed significant, modest accuracy (face level, r = .14; perceiver level, r = .27). Perceiver-level effects depended on domain, with aggressiveness and sexual unfaithfulness having stronger effects than agreeableness, criminality, financial reciprocity, and honesty. We also applied research weaving to map the literature, revealing potential biases, including a preponderance of Western studies, a lack of “cross-talk” between research groups, and clarity issues. Overall, this modest accuracy is unlikely to be of practical utility. Moreover, we strongly urge the field to improve reporting standards and generalizability of the results.

Learning to Judge a Book by Its Cover: Rapid Acquisition of Facial Stereotypes

People are able to quickly and automatically evaluate faces on different traits, such as trustworthiness. There is a growing literature demonstrating that factors such as learning and experience play a role in shaping these judgments. In the current work, we assess the malleability of our trait evaluations by associating arbitrary facial features with trustworthy or untrustworthy behaviors. Across five studies, we demonstrate that this learning can impact trait evaluation and effectively form novel facial stereotypes, which exert effects on evaluations as strong as intrinsic facial trustworthiness. With only a brief training, participants’ rapidly acquired novel facial stereotypes, which were activated automatically and early on in processing, and which biased participants’ trust behavior and hiring decisions. These results suggest that our trait evaluations of faces are shaped by an implicit learning mechanism that abstracts the co-occurrence between facial features and trait-related behaviors, resulting in the creation of novel facial stereotypes.

EXPRESS: Perceiving the facial trustworthiness: facial age, emotional expression and attractiveness

People can make trustworthiness judgements based on facial characteristics. However, the previous findings regarding on whether facial age influences interpersonal trust are inconsistent. Using the trust game, the current study investigated the interactions of facial age with attractiveness and emotional expression in regarding to trustworthiness judgements. In experiments 1 & 2, younger participants were asked to invest in either younger or older faces that were shown for 2000 ms and 33 ms respectively. The results showed that people trust the faces of older people more than they do of younger people. There was also an interaction between facial age and attractiveness. The participants invested more money in older faces than in younger faces only when they perceived the faces to be less attractive. However, the interaction between facial age and emotional expression was inconsistent in the two experiments. The participants invested more money in older faces that were shown for 2000 ms when they perceived the happy and sad emotions, but they invested more money in older faces that were shown for 33 ms when they perceived the happy emotion. These results reveal that people make trustworthiness judgements based on multiple facial cues when they view strangers of different ages.