Abstract
Discriminating real human faces from artificial can be achieved quickly and accurately by face-processing networks, but less is known about what stimulus qualities or interindividual differences in the perceiver might influence whether a face is perceived as being alive. In the present studies, morphed stimuli differing in levels of animacy were created. Participants made judgements about whether the face appeared animate at different levels along the morph continuum. The faces varied in terms of emotional expression (happy vs. neutral) and gender. Male faces were judged to be animate at a lower threshold (i.e., closer to the inanimate end of the continuum) than female faces. Animacy was also perceived more readily in faces with happy expressions than neutral. These effects were observed across two separate studies involving different participants and different sets of stimuli (animate faces morphed with dolls or those morphed with computer generated faces). Finally, the influence of interindividual variability in personality traits on animacy perception was examined. This revealed that an externally oriented cognitive style, a component of alexithymia, was associated with lower thresholds for perceiving animacy, for animate faces morphed with dolls. The findings are discussed in relation to inter- and intra-individual variability in animacy perception and social interaction.
Highlights
The accurate identification of animate human faces from inanimate objects is vital for social interaction and carries a key evolutionary advantage
Female faces are associated with narrower jawlines and lighter skin pigmentation compared with male faces (Brown & Perrett, 1993; Frost, 1988) and as such share a closer similarity with the doll faces typically used in animacy experiments than male faces do
In Experiment One, we demonstrate that the perception of animacy in stimuli morphed between human and doll faces is influenced by the gender and emotional expression of the stimulus face, but does not Stimulus group Point of Subjective Equality (PSE) (%) a b c
Summary
The accurate identification of animate (i.e., living beings capable of independent actions, thoughts, and emotions) human faces from inanimate objects is vital for social interaction and carries a key evolutionary advantage. This process relies on perceptual cues from the whole face, including structural and featural information (Balas & Horski, 2012; Balas & Tonsager, 2014). Female faces are associated with narrower jawlines and lighter skin pigmentation compared with male faces (Brown & Perrett, 1993; Frost, 1988) and as such share a closer similarity with the doll faces typically used in animacy experiments than male faces do This may result in female face stimuli being rated as less animate than male stimuli. If objectification underlies the gender differences seen in animacy perception, participants who demonstrate greater objectification of women should show higher animacy thresholds for female faces than those who score low on objectification of women
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