Having a normal face is almost always synonymous with going unnoticed, but new research suggests that “normal, this can be impressive when people assess the reliability of faces.
The survey indicates that typical faces are not considered the most attractive, but the most reliable.
- According to the study “The Influence of Facial Typicity on Perceived Reliability.
- ” we are more likely to rely on a “typical” face because it may indicate that the individual is part of the culture in which he or she is inserted.
- Conveying the idea of familiarity.
In this sense, these findings have important implications for understanding social perception, including intercultural perceptions, as explained by the scientist, psychologist and lead researcher of this study, Carmel Sofer, of Princeton University (USA). U. S. ) And Radboud Nijmegen University (Netherlands).
Previous studies have shown that a face composed of a biotype with many faces is generally considered more attractive than the sum of its constituent parts, however, other studies suggest that the relationship between typicity and attractiveness may not be so simple, as there is some preference. For certain proportions that interfere with facial symmetry, which may explain the connection. Sofer and his colleagues questioned whether typicity could be more directly related to the perception of reliability.
In one experiment, the researchers digitally created a “typical” face from biotypes of 92 female faces. They also created an “attractive” face to choose the 12 most attractive faces from another set of faces. Then, they combined the twelve faces into one and created nine variations, among them, different levels of attractiveness and typicality, the end result was a set of 11 faces ranging from the least attractive to the most attractive, then the most typical face of these.
Participants evaluated facial variations and used a 9-point scale to assess reliability and attractiveness. During the study, participants evaluated and noted each face three times. Researchers included only participants to eliminate potential gender differences in the way we perceive and evaluate faces.
The resulting ratings revealed a kind of intersection between the typical face and trust, so the more typical the face, the more reliable it would be, but as far as attraction is concerned, however, typicity does not play a relevant role.
“Typical faces weren’t relevant to assessing attractiveness, but they were important for assessing reliability,” Sofer says. “This effect may have gone unnoticed because reliability and attractiveness results are strongly correlated in the survey. “
Another experiment confirmed these results, showing that the relationship between facial typicity and reliability was not caused by the specific faces used, nor by the transformation process that researchers had used to combine and change faces digitally.
“By demonstrating the influence of typical faces on participants’ perceived honesty, our findings highlight a concept based on how they influence social perception,” the researchers write. “We emphasize the social significance of the typical face, as perceptions of reliability are close to the overall assessment of faces. ?
Sofer and his colleagues want to explore how typical facial features in intercultural environments:
“We want to know how people judge face reliability when they visit other countries and how we perceive visitors,” Sofer says. “In addition, we intend to study how the typical face influences reliability judgments when exposed to factors such as variations in emotional expressions.