Do you have wide eyes? Plump cheeks, upturned lips even when you're not smiling? If so, strangers will perceive you as kind, trustworthy, generous and approachable. Or maybe someone has angular features, a highly symmetrical face, and fair skin. That way, others are more likely to initially think of you as smart, successful, trustworthy, and sociable.
We unconsciously and quickly judge people based on their facial features. And research shows that these biases about a person's personality and temperament often persist even after we learn more about them. This bias can have a significant impact on society. For example, research has shown that people with certain traditionally attractive characteristics are more likely to be recruited to leadership positions, succeed in politics, and even be acquitted.
So, what is the origin of “facial stereotypes”? And if there are, what can be done to get rid of them?
A team of psychologists led by Jonathan B. Freeman, director of Columbia University's Social Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, has been studying these questions for years using a variety of human behavioral and neuroimaging experiments. His team recently uncovered how our social attitudes influence these first impressions, developing simple computer-based exercises that help us perceive others more objectively, and more. , achieved a series of important advances.
“Psychologists have long believed that our reactions to faces are deeply rooted in evolutionary biology and cannot be changed, but this has proven not to be true.” Psychology Freeman, an associate professor at “After all, the cognitive associations we draw between facial features and personality traits can be tweaked or dismantled, so we don't have to worry about them in situations where they could be harmful.” You don't have to be dependent on it.”
According to Freeman, when meeting new people, people project positive traits to those whose facial features resemble expressions of joy or contentment (e.g., upturned lips or arched eyebrows); It's more disturbing in people who have facial features that resemble expressions of anger (such as narrowed eyes or thin lips). Freeman says this is probably a product of evolution from a time when our prehistoric ancestors had to be highly sensitive to visual clues about the temperament and intentions of others in order to survive. states. “Early humans probably encountered a lot of situations where they had to make split-second decisions: 'Is this friend or foe?' Should I approach them or run away?” he says. Masu. “The ability to quickly judge the emotional state of strangers would have been very important. We seem to have evolved to have strong reactions to everyone, even if they share the same facial features.” resemble Happy or angry expressions. ”
Psychologists have a term for our tendency to read too much meaning into other people's faces. They call it “facial overgeneralization,” and say this phenomenon is also reflected in the tendency to respond positively to baby-faced adults (the stimulus person). our urge to protect and nurture), and our attraction to people with symmetrical characteristics (an urge that once might have ensured that humans chose a mate without severe genetic abnormalities).
Scientists have traditionally believed that facial stereotypes are genetically hardwired, universal, and fixed, but Freeman and his colleagues are slowly dispelling this idea. They found that people from different cultures perceive faces differently (for example, Americans think people with sad faces are aggressive, but many Argentines find them sympathetic). ), and found that people respond differently to facial features across cultures. about their attitudes toward race, gender, and other social factors. Additionally, researchers found that brain regions responsible for higher-order cognitive functions, such as maintaining social beliefs, communicate with the brain's visual processing centers in real time every time we look at a human face, allowing us to understand what we're seeing. I discovered that it has an impact.
“The racial and gender stereotypes you've internalized can shape your visual perception,” Freeman says. “So, for example, a man's face might look angrier than it actually is, or a woman's face might look more happy.”
Inspired by the flexibility of human facial recognition, Freeman and his colleagues recently set out to see if facial stereotyping could be reduced in environments with harmful consequences, including courtrooms. Previous research suggested that convicted murderers were more likely to be sentenced to death if they had downturned lips, thick eyebrows, and other unfavorable facial features. But researchers at Columbia University confirmed this by conducting a large-scale analysis of photographs of death row inmates in the United States. A mock trial was held for inmates in which research participants acted as jurors. “We found that juries were more likely to recommend the death penalty for defendants whose appearance was determined to be unreliable based solely on photographs,” Freeman said.
But psychologists then repeated the experiment with a twist. Before jurors could hear the case, they had to complete a computer task developed by Freeman's team. The task consisted of viewing images of typically untrustworthy faces accompanied by short descriptions of noble actions such as “Volunteering at a homeless shelter” or “Giving back $20 to the person who dropped it.” I did. Conversely, images of trustworthy faces were combined with reports of despicable acts, such as “I lied about my co-worker to get a promotion.”
“Amazingly, this eliminated juror bias,” Freeman said. “This removed the mental associations that had been drawn between certain facial features and personality traits, allowing us to see each defendant more clearly as an individual.”
The computer task created by the Colombian team is the first anti-bias intervention to successfully combat facial stereotypes. Freeman believes the key to its effectiveness is that users are not told the purpose of the exercise in advance, so it influences people unconsciously.
“Other researchers have previously tried to tackle facial stereotype bias by explicitly encouraging people to recognize and overcome their own biases, but they have not been successful,” Freeman said. he says. “Perhaps countering implicit visual biases that operate in the subconscious mind could involve similar interventions that fly under the radar and modify a person's underlying visual associations without them even realizing it. It may be necessary.”
More research will be needed before the Columbia team's intervention can be implemented in the real world. Currently, the effect may only last a few hours. And so far, researchers have only evaluated the effect on people's perceptions of white male faces. Freeman said his team is currently developing a more sophisticated version of his training module that takes into account the race and gender of both the face and the viewer, using big data technology. .
“Eventually, this intervention could be used in the criminal justice system and any other setting where people are routinely discriminated against because of their appearance,” he said, adding that large companies could He pointed out that training can be easily incorporated into recruitment and recruitment. Promotional efforts. “Many companies are becoming increasingly serious about eliminating insidious bias in the workplace. Why should facial stereotyping still be tolerated?”
