Behavioral information biases the expected facial appearance of members of novel groups

The present study tests the hypothesis that behavioral information diagnostic of an out‐group's traits biases the expected facial appearance of out‐group members toward having facial features corresponding with the inferred traits. Participants formed a stereotype about a novel group based on r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of social psychology 2013-02, Vol.43 (1), p.116-125
Main Authors: Dotsch, RON, Wigboldus, DANIEL H. J., VAN Knippenberg, AD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
Correlation analysis
Expectations
Face
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Information
Judges
Out-groups
Physical appearance
Psychological effects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social attribution, perception and cognition
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social psychology
Stereotypes
Stimuli
Work Environment
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Summary:The present study tests the hypothesis that behavioral information diagnostic of an out‐group's traits biases the expected facial appearance of out‐group members toward having facial features corresponding with the inferred traits. Participants formed a stereotype about a novel group based on random exemplar faces, presented alongside descriptions of their behavior. The behavioral information was manipulated to reflect either trustworthy or criminal traits, whereas the stimulus faces did not reflect any traits. Afterwards, participants' expected facial appearance of group members was assessed using a reverse correlation task. Independent judges rated the resulting visualized expectations as more criminal in the criminal behavioral information condition than in the trustworthy behavioral information condition. The current work establishes a causal link between behavioral information and expected out‐group faces where previously only correlations had been observed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:0046-2772
1099-0992
DOI:10.1002/ejsp.1928