Facial resemblance to emotions: Group differences, impression effects, and race stereotypes.

The authors used connectionist modeling to extend previous research on emotion overgeneralization effects. Study 1 demonstrated that neutral expression male faces objectively resemble angry expressions more than female faces do, female faces objectively resemble surprise expressions more than male faces do, White faces objectively resemble angry expressions more than Black or Korean faces do, and Black faces objectively resemble happy and surprise expressions more than White faces do. Study 2 demonstrated that objective resemblance to emotion expressions influences trait impressions even when statistically controlling possible confounding influences of attractiveness and babyfaceness. It further demonstrated that emotion overgeneralization is moderated by face race and that racial differences in emotion resemblance contribute to White perceivers’ stereotypes of Blacks and Asians. These results suggest that intergroup relations may be strained not only by cultural stereotypes but also by adaptive responses to emotion expressions that are overgeneralized to groups whose faces subtly resemble particular emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of facial masking and sex on older adults’ impressions of individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) involves facial masking, which may impair social interaction. Older adult observers who viewed segments of videotaped interviews of individuals with PD expressed less interest in relationships with women with higher masking and judged them as less supportive. Masking did not affect ratings of men in these domains, possibly because higher masking violates gender norms for expressivity in women but not in men. Observers formed less accurate ratings of the social supportiveness and social strain of women than men, and higher masking decreased accuracy for ratings of strain. Results suggest that some of the problems with social relationships in PD may be due to inaccurate impressions and reduced desire to interact with individuals with higher masking, especially women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bright, bad, babyfaced boys: appearance stereotypes do not always yield self-fulfilling prophecy effects

Three studies tested the hypothesis that babyfaced adolescent boys would compensate for the undesirable expectation that they will exhibit childlike traits by behaving contrary to it. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that babyfaced boys from middle- and lower class samples, including a sample of delinquents, showed higher academic achievement than their mature-faced peers, refuting the stereotype of babyfaced people as intellectually weak. In the lower class samples, this compensation effect was moderated by IQ and socioeconomic status (SES), variables that influence the ability to overcome low expectations. Study 3 showed that babyfaceness also can produce negative compensatory behaviors. Low-SES babyfaced boys were more likely than their mature-faced peers to be delinquent, and babyfaced delinquents committed more crimes, refuting the stereotype of babyfaced people as warm, submissive, and physically weak.     

Impressions of babyfaced individuals across the life span.

Four questions were addressed concerning perceptions of babyfaced individuals from infancy to older adulthood: (1) Do perceivers make reliable babyface judgments at each age; (2) does a babyface have the same effects on trait impressions at each age; (3) are the effects of a babyface independent of the effects of attractiveness; and (4) what facial maturity features are associated with babyface ratings, and do these features predict trait impressions? Ratings of portrait photographs revealed that perceivers reliably detect variations in babyfaceness across the life span. Facial measurements revealed that large eyes, a round face, thin eyebrows, and a small nose bridge characterized a babyface. Trait impressions showed a babyface overgeneralization effect at each age: Babyfaced individuals were perceived to have more childlike traits than their maturefaced peers, and this effect was independent of attractiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stability of babyfaceness and attractiveness across the life span.

Differential, structural, and absolute stability of babyfaceness and attractiveness at 5 ages were investigated. Attractiveness had differential stability across the life span. Babyfaceness had differential stability from childhood through the 30s for males and through adolescence for females. Consistent with sexual dimorphisms in facial maturation, males had less differential stability in babyfaceness from childhood to puberty than females. Structural stability of facial appearance, as reflected in the relationship between babyfaceness and attractiveness across the life span, was low, with these qualities positively related for females in childhood and for both sexes in their 30s and 50s but unrelated in puberty and adolescence. Absolute stability of babyfaceness and attractiveness was also low, with mean levels decreasing across the life span. Contrary to cultural stereotypes, age-related decreases in attractiveness were equal for male and female Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

They don't all look alike: Individual impressions of other racial groups.

Reliability, content, and homogeneity of own- and other-race impressions were assessed: US White, US Black, and Korean students rated faces of White, Black, or Korean men. High intraracial reliabilities revealed that people of one race showed equally high agreement regarding the traits of own- and other-race faces. Racially universal appearance stereotypes (the attractiveness halo effect and the babyface overgeneralization effect) contributed substantially to interracial agreement, which was only marginally lower than intraracial agreement. Moreover, similar attention to variations in appearance yielded similar degrees of own- and other-race trait differentiation. When own- and other-race differences in the differentiation of faces on babyfaceness were statistically controlled, differences in trait differentiation were eliminated. Despite the individual impressions of other-race faces, certain racial stereotypes persisted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)