Abstract
In perceptual decision-making, a person’s response on a given trial is influenced by their response on the immediately preceding trial. This sequential effect was initially demonstrated in psychophysical tasks, but has now been found in more complex, real-world judgements. The similarity of the current and previous stimuli determines the nature of the effect, with more similar items producing assimilation in judgements, while less similarity can cause a contrast effect. Previous research found assimilation in ratings of facial attractiveness, and here, we investigated whether this effect is influenced by the social categories of the faces presented. Over three experiments, participants rated the attractiveness of own- (White) and other-race (Chinese) faces of both sexes that appeared successively. Through blocking trials by race (Experiment 1), sex (Experiment 2), or both dimensions (Experiment 3), we could examine how sequential judgements were altered by the salience of different social categories in face sequences. For sequences that varied in sex alone, own-race faces showed significantly less opposite-sex assimilation (male and female faces perceived as dissimilar), while other-race faces showed equal assimilation for opposite- and same-sex sequences (male and female faces were not differentiated). For sequences that varied in race alone, categorisation by race resulted in no opposite-race assimilation for either sex of face (White and Chinese faces perceived as dissimilar). For sequences that varied in both race and sex, same-category assimilation was significantly greater than opposite-category. Our results suggest that the race of a face represents a superordinate category relative to sex. These findings demonstrate the importance of social categories when considering sequential judgements of faces, and also highlight a novel approach for investigating how multiple social dimensions interact during decision-making.
Highlights
The order in which we are presented with items for judgement has a significant influence on those judgements
Experiment 1 In the first experiment, we investigated whether sequential effects differed for own- and other-race faces, with both males and females appearing within each sequence
We investigated whether sequential effects differed for female and male faces, with both while otherrace (White) and Chinese faces appearing within each sequence
Summary
The order in which we are presented with items for judgement has a significant influence on those judgements. The first and last items in a sequence show an advantage in later recall (primacy and recency effects, respectively [1]). Using a large dataset of results from the ‘Idol’ television series, researchers found that singers who performed after a weak contestant were more likely to be evaluated poorly in comparison with those who performed after a strong contestant [5] This assimilation effect was originally established within psychophysical tasks [6,7], but has more recently been found in such varied contexts as performance judgements of Olympic athletes [8], estimates of item prices [9], and ratings of essays [10]
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