Abstract
This study explored the extent to which there are the neural correlates of the affective personality influence on face processing using event-related potentials (ERPs). In the learning phase, participants viewed a target individual’s face (expression neutral or faint smile) paired with either negative, neutral or positive sentences describing previous typical behavior of the target. In the following EEG testing phase, participants completed gender judgments of the learned faces. Statistical analyses were conducted on measures of neural activity during the gender judgment task. Repeated measures ANOVA of ERP data showed that faces described as having a negative personality elicited larger N170 than did those with a neutral or positive description. The early posterior negativity (EPN) showed the same result pattern, with larger amplitudes for faces paired with negative personality than for others. The size of the late positive potential was larger for faces paired with positive personality than for those with neutral and negative personality. The current study indicates that affective personality information is associated with an automatic, top–down modulation on face processing.
Highlights
Personality is proposed as one of the principal affective knowledge during social interaction, determining our evaluations and actions (Willis and Todorov, 2006; Lorenzo et al, 2010)
The results of N170 and early posterior negativity (EPN) showed a similar pattern with larger amplitudes for faces paired with negative personality than those paired with neutral and positive personality
As N170 was found to correlate with activation of the fusiform face area (FFA) and the superior temporal sulcus (STS; Rousselet et al, 2004; Bentin et al, 2006), indexing face-specific structural encoding (Bentin and Deouell, 2000; Itier and Taylor, 2004), we suggest that the early neural segregation indicates an automatic, rapid modulation of facial structural perception by affective personality information
Summary
Personality is proposed as one of the principal affective knowledge during social interaction, determining our evaluations and actions (Willis and Todorov, 2006; Lorenzo et al, 2010). It has been well-documented that information of personality can be acquired via facial appearance in a spectacularly short period of time (Bar et al, 2006; Todorov et al, 2008). The experiment was modeled upon behavioral studies showing that even a single behavior description is sufficient to trigger trait inference (Todorov et al, 2007; Collins and Olson, 2014; Schneid et al, 2015). The current study was interested in whether the high-level affective personality information could influent the perception of that individual, especially the perception of faces
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