Abstract
Previous research has demonstrated that the tendency to form first impressions from facial appearance emerges early in development. We examined whether social referencing is one route through which these consistent first impressions are acquired. In Study 1, we show that 5- to 7-year-old children are more likely to choose a target face previously associated with positive non-verbal signals as more trustworthy than a face previously associated with negative non-verbal signals. In Study 2, we show that children generalise this learning to novel faces who resemble those who have previously been the recipients of positive non-verbal behaviour. Taken together, these data show one means through which individuals within a community could acquire consistent, and potentially inaccurate, first impressions of others faces. In doing so, they highlight a route through which cultural transmission of first impressions can occur.
Highlights
Previous research has demonstrated that the tendency to form first impressions from facial appearance emerges early in development
Research with adults has shown that while some first impressions contain a kernel of truth[8], others bare little or no resemblance to the actual character traits of the individuals being judged[9]
Following our pre-registered analysis plan, we conducted a one-sample t-test evaluating the number of times the children (N = 120) chose the target individuals associate with smiling context faces, against a chance level of 50%
Summary
Previous research has demonstrated that the tendency to form first impressions from facial appearance emerges early in development. In Study 2, we show that children generalise this learning to novel faces who resemble those who have previously been the recipients of positive non-verbal behaviour Taken together, these data show one means through which individuals within a community could acquire consistent, and potentially inaccurate, first impressions of others faces. Consistent with this, research has shown that adults quickly learn who is trustworthy from receiving small amounts of behavioural information about them[15] and generalise this information to novel individuals who are somewhat similar in a ppearance[16] Proponents of both theoretical positions agree that at least some first impressions must be learned[11,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. Children’s animations pair the presence of physical
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