The modular nature of trustworthiness detection.
The capacity to trust wisely is a critical facilitator of success and prosperity, and it has been conjectured that people of higher intelligence are better able to detect signs of untrustworthiness from potential partners. In contrast, this article reports five trust game studies suggesting that reading trustworthiness of the faces of strangers is a modular process. Trustworthiness detection from faces is independent of general intelligence (Study 1) and effortless (Study 2). Pictures that include nonfacial features such as hair and clothing impair trustworthiness detection (Study 3) by increasing reliance on conscious judgments (Study 4), but people largely prefer to make decisions from this sort of pictures (Study 5). In sum, trustworthiness detection in an economic interaction is a genuine and effortless ability, possessed in equal amount by people of all cognitive capacities, but whose impenetrability leads to inaccurate conscious judgments and inappropriate informational preferences.
Cognition, Langues, Langage et Ergonomie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Jean-François
0000-0002-4959-188X
JF
Bonnefon
Toulouse School of Economics.
Astrid
0000-0002-6503-6114
A
Hopfensitz
Laboratoire Alfred Binet, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Wim
W
De Neys
D000328:Adult; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012938:Social Perception; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology*