Are the Eyes (and the Face) Truly the Windows to the Soul?
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
SURC Ballroom C/D
Start Date
16-5-2013
End Date
16-5-2013
Abstract
One method for investigating facial inferences and social perception has been to ask individuals to make personality assessments from the faces of unacquainted individuals (Kenny, Albright and Malloy, 1988; Riggio, Lippa and Salinas, 1990; Berry, 1990, 1991). Results generally indicated that individuals unacquainted with stimulus persons can make accurate personality assessments under certain conditions. The current study evaluated the capacities of individuals to make personality assessments of unacquainted individuals from facial expressions in photographs. The photographs were age-varied, pre-fame childhood pictures of individuals who later became famous as adults, either renown for positive behavior and societal contributions, or notorious for negative behavior and destructiveness. Six pre-fame photographs (two toddlers, two 10 year olds, two early teens), three of ‘positive’ individuals and three of ‘negative’ individuals, were selected from a pool of 24 pictures, based on lack of recognition in a pilot study. They were electronically and randomly presented sequentially to single participants in an online survey. Each participant responded to a series of questions about various personality characteristics of the stimulus person, while the photograph remained on screen, before being presented with the next photograph and question set. Results indicated that participants correlate certain emotional and personality characteristics with stimulus persons based on their age in the photographs, their facial expressions, and on their adult positive or negative reputation. Results are discussed in the context of the facial assessment-personality characteristic literature.
Recommended Citation
Galatis, Donald, "Are the Eyes (and the Face) Truly the Windows to the Soul?" (2013). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 15.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2013/posters/15
Poster Number
47
Additional Mentoring Department
Psychology
Are the Eyes (and the Face) Truly the Windows to the Soul?
SURC Ballroom C/D
One method for investigating facial inferences and social perception has been to ask individuals to make personality assessments from the faces of unacquainted individuals (Kenny, Albright and Malloy, 1988; Riggio, Lippa and Salinas, 1990; Berry, 1990, 1991). Results generally indicated that individuals unacquainted with stimulus persons can make accurate personality assessments under certain conditions. The current study evaluated the capacities of individuals to make personality assessments of unacquainted individuals from facial expressions in photographs. The photographs were age-varied, pre-fame childhood pictures of individuals who later became famous as adults, either renown for positive behavior and societal contributions, or notorious for negative behavior and destructiveness. Six pre-fame photographs (two toddlers, two 10 year olds, two early teens), three of ‘positive’ individuals and three of ‘negative’ individuals, were selected from a pool of 24 pictures, based on lack of recognition in a pilot study. They were electronically and randomly presented sequentially to single participants in an online survey. Each participant responded to a series of questions about various personality characteristics of the stimulus person, while the photograph remained on screen, before being presented with the next photograph and question set. Results indicated that participants correlate certain emotional and personality characteristics with stimulus persons based on their age in the photographs, their facial expressions, and on their adult positive or negative reputation. Results are discussed in the context of the facial assessment-personality characteristic literature.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Mary Radeke