To which world regions does the valence–dominance model of social perception apply?

• Published in: Nature human behaviour 2021-01, Vol.5 (1), p.159-169
• Main Authors: Jones, Benedict C., DeBruine, Lisa M., Antfolk, Jan, Arinze, Nwadiogo C., Ndukaihe, Izuchukwu L. G., Bloxsom, Nicholas G., Vadillo, Miguel A., Mburu, Georgina, Wlodarczyk, Anna, Ariyabuddhiphongs, Kris, Jarukasemthawee, Somboon, Stolier, Ryan M., Bonick, Judson, Hahn, Amanda C., Valderrama, Eugenio, Vásquez-Amézquita, Milena, Hajdu, Nandor, Szecsi, Peter, Andreychik, Michael, Musser, Erica D., Golik, Karolina, Stieger, Stefan, Mues, Chiel, Stephen, Ian D., Philipp, Michael C., Elouafa, Jamal, Papadatou-Pastou, Marietta, Barba-Sánchez, Alan E., Freeman, Jonathan B., Oh, Dong Won, Cook, Corey L., Chandel, Priyanka, Parganiha, Arti, Pradhan, Sraddha, Singh, Margaret M., Pande, Babita, Kačmár, Pavol, Baskin, Ernest, Thirkettle, Martin, Schmidt, Kathleen, Beaudry, Jennifer L., Balas, Benjamin, Colloff, Melissa F., Gülgöz, Sami, Hoyer, Karlijn, Sleegers, Willem W. A., Wissink, Joeri, Kaminski, Gwenaël, Chen, Sau-Chin, Jzerman, Hans I., Sarda, Elisa, Neyroud, Lison, Van der Linden, Nicolas, Sampaio, Waldir, Ścigała, Karolina A., Storage, Daniel, Wagemans, Fieke M. A., Saunders, Blair, Sirota, Miroslav, Lima, Tiago J. S., Vergauwe, Evie, Jaworska, Katarzyna, Stern, Julia, van Zyl, Casper J. J., Körner, Anita, Boudesseul, Jordane, Ruiz-Dodobara, Fernando, Blake, Khandis R., White, David, Gordon-Finlayson, Alasdair R., Anne, Michele, Janssen, Steve M. J., Lee, Kean Mun, Rosa, Anna Dalla, Vianello, Michelangelo, Kocsor, Ferenc, Putz, Ádám, Tressoldi, Patrizio, Lins, Samuel, Adamkovic, Matus, Babincak, Peter, Ropovik, Ivan, Ribeiro, Gianni, Tan, Kok Wei, Thorstenson, Christopher A., Fernandez, Ana Maria, Hsu, Rafael M. C. S., Corral-Frías, Nadia S., Frohlich, Brooke, Inzlicht, Michael, Alaei, Ravin, Lamm, Claus, Akgoz, Aysegul, Dunham, Yarrow, Alper, Sinan, Cai, Sun Jun, Danvers, Alexander F., Armstrong, Marie M., Yan, Wen-Jing, Carvalho, Lilian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 4014/477/2811; 631/477; 631/477/2811; Adolescent; Adult; Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cognitive science; cross cultural; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Dominance; dominance model; Emotions; Experimental Psychology; Extraction; face perception; Facial Expression; Generalizability; Humans; Judgment; Life Sciences; Male; Microeconomics; Models, Psychological; Neurosciences; Personality and Social Psychology; Psychology; Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology); Psychology: 260; psykologi; Psykologi (exklusive tillämpad psykologi); Psykologi: 260; Regional variations; Regions; Registered Report; Samfunnsvitenskap: 200; social judgements; Social perception; Social Perception - ethnology; Social Perception - psychology; Social science: 200; valence–dominance model; VDP; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2397-3374; 2397-3374
• DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-01007-2

Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov’s methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov’s original analysis strategy, the valence–dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions, we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence–dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction methods and correlate and rotate the dimension reduction solution. Protocol registration The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 5 November 2018. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7611443.v1 . Jones et al. examine the generalizability of the valence–dominance model of social judgements of faces in 41 countries across 11 world regions. They find evidence of both generalizability and variation, depending on the analytical method.