title: Physical Strength as a Cue to Dominance: A Data-Driven Approach.
abstract: We investigate both similarities and differences between dominance and strength judgments using a data-driven approach. First, we created statistical face shape models of judgments of both dominance and physical strength. The resulting faces representing dominance and strength were highly similar, and participants were at chance in discriminating faces generated by the two models. Second, although the models are highly correlated, it is possible to create a model that captures their differences. This model generates faces that vary from dominant-yet-physically weak to nondominant-yet-physically strong. Participants were able to identify the difference in strength between the physically strong-yet-nondominant faces and the physically weak-yet-dominant faces. However, this was not the case for identifying dominance. These results suggest that representations of social dominance and physical strength are highly similar, and that strength is used as a cue for dominance more than dominance is used as a cue for strength.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social, Portugal toscano.hugo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toscano
authors.affiliation: University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.affiliation: Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dotsch
authors.affiliation: Princeton University, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Falvello
authors.affiliation: Princeton University, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Todorov
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003463:Cues; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010809:Physical Fitness; D012930:Social Dominance; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: data-driven methods; dominance; face perception; physical strength