Abstract
The evolution of the human brain and visual system is widely believed to have been shaped by the need to process and make sense out of expressive information, particularly via the face. We are so attuned to expressive information in the face that it informs even stable trait inferences (e.g., Knutson, 1996) through a process we refer to here as the face-specific fundamental attribution error (Albohn et al., 2019). We even derive highly consistent beliefs about the emotional lives of others based on emotion-resembling facial appearance (e.g., low versus high brows, big versus small eyes, etc.) in faces we know are completely devoid of overt expression (i.e., emotion overgeneralization effect: see Zebrowitz et al., 2010). The present studies extend these insights to better understand lay beliefs about older and younger adults’ emotion dispositions and their impact on behavioral outcomes. In Study 1, we found that older versus younger faces objectively have more negative emotion-resembling cues in the face (using computer vision), and that raters likewise attribute more negative emotional dispositions to older versus younger adults based just on neutral facial appearance (see too Adams et al., 2016). In Study 2, we found that people appear to encode these negative emotional appearance cues in memory more so for older than younger adult faces. Finally, in Study 3 we exam downstream behavioral consequences of these negative attributions, showing that observers’ avoidance of older versus younger faces is mediated by emotion-resembling facial appearance.
Highlights
That humans possess theory of mind–the ability to read others to make accurate assessments of others’ seemingly invisible internal states–is widely hailed as evidence that the evolution of the human brain, and visual system in particular, has been shaped by a need to process and derive social meaning from others’ expression, via the face (Allison et al, 2000; Emery, 2000).As humans we are so tuned to reading expressive information from others that we fall prey to what we will refer to here as face-specific fundamental attribution errors (Albohn et al, 2019)
Participants believed that older adult neutral faces [estimated marginal mean (EMM) = 3.14] provided significantly less information than younger adult neutral faces (EMM = 3.73)
In a preliminary study we showed that participants believed that neutral faces of all age groups provided little useful information, but in particular older adult neutral faces
Summary
As humans we are so tuned to reading expressive information from others that we fall prey to what we will refer to here as face-specific fundamental attribution errors (Albohn et al, 2019). Just like the classic fundamental attribution error, which posits that individuals tend to ascribe internal and stable traits based solely on external features, individuals tend to ascribe enduring personality traits and emotional dispositions to others based on their overt facial expressions. We are so tuned to reading expressive information from the face that even when there is no expressive information present individuals base their beliefs about others’ emotional dispositions on emotion-resembling appearance cues in the face (i.e., emotion overgeneralization; Zebrowitz et al, 2010). Individuals overgeneralize emotions because they are using facial appearance cues that resemblance expressions to make their judgments about enduring impressions of others
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