The role of learned inferential encoding rules in the perception of faces: Effects of nonconscious self-perpetuation of a bias

Abstract

It is proposed that the process of self-perpetuation of encoding biases can contribute to the acquisition of individually differentiated interpretive categories for the perception of faces. In the learning phase of Experiment 1, subjects were exposed to a short series of stimulus persons that contained a nonsalient covariation between a facial feature x and a personality characteristic y. Consistent with the previous research on processing of information about covariations, in the testing phase of the study, the ratings of new stimulus persons indicated that subjects acquired a procedural knowledge about the manipulated covariation. In the testing phase of Experiment 2 in which subjects rated a very long sequence of new neutral faces (80), the influence of the newly acquired encoding rule (inferring y based on x) on subjects' judgments gradually increased over time. As predicted by the self-perpetuation hypothesis, the growth of strength of the encoding rule over the testing phase occurred even though the testing phase trials did not contain any information supportive of the encoding rule. This result demonstrates a viable explanation of how people may acquire the (individually differentiated) encoding rules that “translate” objective facial features of perceived persons into subjectively meaningful impressions of attractiveness, intelligence, honesty, etc. The development of such rules can be triggered “incidentally” (i.e., by a very limited number of accidentally consistent instances), and, once initiated, they may become stronger and increasingly influential due to the self-perpetuation mechanism, that is, in the absence of any objectively suportive evidence.