A recent scientific study showed that people form first impressions of others' personalities just by looking at their faces, even without using words or specific descriptions, but these impressions may reflect stereotypes and biases more than they reveal the true traits of individuals.
The scientific website "Phys.org" reported on Tuesday that the study conducted by researchers at the California Institute of Technology, and published in the journal "Nature Human Behaviour" on October 19, involved more than 3,000 participants who were asked to rank photos of faces of people they did not know according to similarities and differences in the impressions they evoked, without being provided with a list of words describing personality traits.
The researchers identified five main factors contributing to the formation of these impressions: approachability, warmth, competence, ethics, and youth. The team compared these results with data from previous studies that relied on evaluating faces using specific words, finding a convergence between the results, which indicates the possibility of studying first impressions through methods that do not rely on language.
The researchers pointed out that these judgments do not necessarily reveal the true personality of individuals, but rather reflect the way others perceive their facial features. They clarified that the new methodology may allow for future studies on people who cannot use language, and can also help in studying how first impressions are formed in infants.
He added that the team intends to study neural activity to understand how the brain processes these judgments, and to determine the stage at which language intervenes in their formation.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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