title: Interpretation of appearance: the effect of facial features on first impressions and personality.
abstract: Appearance is known to influence social interactions, which in turn could potentially influence personality development. In this study we focus on discovering the relationship between self-reported personality traits, first impressions and facial characteristics. The results reveal that several personality traits can be read above chance from a face, and that facial features influence first impressions. Despite the former, our prediction model fails to reliably infer personality traits from either facial features or first impressions. First impressions, however, could be inferred more reliably from facial features. We have generated artificial, extreme faces visualising the characteristics having an effect on first impressions for several traits. Conclusively, we find a relationship between first impressions, some personality traits and facial features and consolidate that people on average assess a given face in a highly similar manner.
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wolffhechel
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fagertun
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Ulrik Plesner
authors.initials: UP
authors.lastname: Jacobsen
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Wiktor
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Majewski
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Astrid Sofie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Hemmingsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Catrine Lohmann
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Sofie Katrine
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Lorentzen
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hanne
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jarmer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D040821:Human Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult