Understanding trait impressions from faces

• Published in: The British journal of psychology Vol. 113; no. 4; pp. 1056 - 1078
• Main Authors: Sutherland, Clare A. M., Young, Andrew W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England British Psychological Society 01.11.2022
• Subjects: Attitude; Cognition; Cues; data‐driven approaches; face perception; Face recognition; Facial Expression; Facial expressions; Facial Recognition; first impressions; Humans; Impression formation; Impressions; Phylogeny; social cognition models; Social environment; Social Perception; Stereotypes; Stereotyping; Tracking; trait attributions; face perception; data-driven approaches; trait attributions; first impressions; social cognition models
• ISSN: 0007-1269; 2044-8295
• DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12583

Impressions from faces are made remarkably quickly and they can underpin behaviour in a wide variety of social contexts. Over the last decade many studies have sought to trace the links between facial cues and social perception and behaviour. One such body of work has shown clear overlap between the fields of face perception and social stereotyping by demonstrating a role for conceptual stereotypes in impression formation from faces. We integrate these results involving conceptual influences on impressions with another substantial body of research in visual cognition which demonstrates that much of the variance in impressions can be predicted from perceptual, data‐driven models using physical cues in face images. We relate this discussion to the phylogenetic, cultural, individual and developmental origins of facial impressions and define priority research questions for the field including investigating non‐WEIRD cultures, tracking the developmental trajectory of impressions and determining the malleability of impression formation.