title: Modeling first impressions from highly variable facial images.
abstract: First impressions of social traits, such as trustworthiness or dominance, are reliably perceived in faces, and despite their questionable validity they can have considerable real-world consequences. We sought to uncover the information driving such judgments, using an attribute-based approach. Attributes (physical facial features) were objectively measured from feature positions and colors in a database of highly variable "ambient" face photographs, and then used as input for a neural network to model factor dimensions (approachability, youthful-attractiveness, and dominance) thought to underlie social attributions. A linear model based on this approach was able to account for 58% of the variance in raters' impressions of previously unseen faces, and factor-attribute correlations could be used to rank attributes by their importance to each factor. Reversing this process, neural networks were then used to predict facial attributes and corresponding image properties from specific combinations of factor scores. In this way, the factors driving social trait impressions could be visualized as a series of computer-generated cartoon face-like images, depicting how attributes change along each dimension. This study shows that despite enormous variation in ambient images of faces, a substantial proportion of the variance in first impressions can be accounted for through linear changes in objectively defined features.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
authors: Richard J W
authors: RJ
authors: Vernon
authors: Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
authors: Clare A M
authors: CA
authors: Sutherland
authors: Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
authors: Andrew W
authors: AW
authors: Young
authors: Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom tom.hartley@york.ac.uk.
authors: Tom
authors: T
authors: Hartley
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D012930:Social Dominance; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: face perception; impression formation; person perception; social cognition