IMPRESSIONS SHAPED BY FACIAL APPEARANCE FOSTER BIASED DECISIONS
Research in recent
years has shown that people associate specific facial traits with an
individual's personality. For instance, people consistently rate faces that
appear more feminine or that naturally appear happy as looking more
trustworthy. In addition to trustworthiness, people also consistently associate
competence, dominance, and friendliness with specific facial traits. According
to an article published by Cell Press on October 21st in Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, people rely on
these subtle and arbitrary facial traits to make important decisions, from
voting for a political candidate to convicting a suspect for a crime. Referring
to this systemic bias as "face-ism," the authors present its
real-world consequences and discuss potential ways of overcoming it.
Although we would like
to think our judgments and choices are rational, impartial, consistent, and
solely based on relevant information, the truth is that they are often biased
by superficial and irrelevant factors," says Christopher Olivola of Carnegie
Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, lead author of the review
article, which he co-authored with Princeton University researchers Friederike
Funk and Alexander Todorov. "This is a troubling human tendency that needs
to be corrected, or at least mitigated, because faces are not valid predictors
of a person's traits."
Numerous studies have
shown that people form impressions of aspiring leaders based on their faces,
and that these superficial impressions predict important social outcomes. For
example, political candidates with naturally competent-looking faces are more
likely to win elections than those who look incompetent, and having a naturally
dominant-looking face predicts rank attainment in the military.
The bias to rely on
facial appearance to make decisions can also lead to serious consequences in
the legal system and financial realm. People are more likely to convict
individuals whose faces look untrustworthy or guilty, while having a face that
looks trustworthy strengthens an individual's ability to attract financial
investments and procure loans.
Uncovering the facial
variations that lead to impressions of competence or trustworthiness is still
an active area of research. Although much remains unknown, recent
methodological advances, such as sophisticated computer-based models that
systematically manipulate facial appearance, are allowing researchers to tackle
this question with unprecedented rigor.
Although face-ism is
widespread, research suggests that it could be reduced by arming people with
more relevant and valid types of information. For instance, knowing more about
a political candidate and his or her positions or past behavior makes voters
less likely to be influenced by facial traits. "We need to guard against
letting our choices be biased by superficial cues," Olivola says. "In
some contexts, educating people might be sufficient to reduce facial
stereotyping. In other contexts, however, more research will be needed to
identify the best way to mitigate the biasing influence of facial appearance."
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