Shared Perceptual Basis of Emotional Expression and Trustworthiness Impressions From Faces Nikolaas N. Oosterhof & Alexander Todorov Kira Bucca

Trustworthiness: deserving of trust or confidence; dependable; reliable.

Who is more Trustworthy?

Methods First part of the experiment was to have subjects rate the level of trustworthiness of a series of faces. These faces were determined if they were trustworthy or not via the mean judgments. This decided range was used for the rest of the experiment. (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2009)

Emotion: Angry vs. Happy

Brows and Mouths

(Oosterhof & Todorov, 2009)

Methods (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2009)

Methods (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2009)

Hypothesis Untrustworthy faces expressing anger should be perceived as angrier than trustworthy faces expressing the same emotion. Trustworthy faces expressing happiness should be perceived as happier than untrustworthy faces expressing the same emotion. Changes in trustworthiness in the direction of the expressed emotion should increase the intensity of the perceived emotion, and transitions in the opposite direction should decrease this intensity.

Results (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2009)

Conclusions Trustworthy faces who expressed happiness were perceived as happier than untrustworthy faces who expressed the same emotion. Untrustworthy faces who expressed anger were perceived as angrier than trustworthy faces who expressed the same emotion. Transitions in face trustworthiness in the direction of the expressed emotion increased the perceived intensity of the final emotion, transitions in the opposite direction decreased the perceived intensity of the emotion. Changes in structural features of faces can affect the perception of emotions.

Limitations The experimenters did not use the same subjects throughout all parts of the experiment. Long expression durations s of viewing time and no time limit after the stimuli is hidden to determine the trustworthiness. Only used male faces.

Future Directions Looking at other expressions and how they affect trustworthiness. How much does perception of and memory for facial identity affect trustworthiness judgments. Looking at if trustworthiness judgments may be used as a subtle test of preserved emotional processing of faces. I would love to collect fMRI data while subjects are doing this task.

Thanks! -Never google image “trustworthiness”… it just doesn’t make sense.