How you look is who you are: The appearance reveals character lay theory increases support for facial profiling.

Abstract

People are excessively confident that they can judge others’ characteristics from their appearance. This research identifies a novel antecedent of this phenomenon. Ten studies (N = 2,967, 4 preregistered) find that the more people believe that appearance reveals character, the more confident they are in their appearance-based judgments, and therefore, the more they support the use of facial profiling technologies in law enforcement, education, and business. Specifically, people who believe that appearance reveals character support the use of facial profiling in general (Studies 1a and 1b), and even when they themselves are the target of profiling (Studies 1c and 1d). Experimentally inducing people to believe that appearance reveals character increases their support for facial profiling (Study 2), because it increases their confidence in the ability to make appearance-based judgments (Study 3). An intervention that undermines people’s confidence in their appearance-based judgments reduces their support for facial profiling (Study 4). The relationship between the lay theory and support for facial profiling is weaker among people with a growth mindset about personality, as facial profiling presumes a relatively unchanging character (Study 5a). This relationship is also weaker among people who believe in free will, as facial profiling presumes that individuals have limited free will (Study 5b). The appearance reveals character lay theory is a stronger predictor of support for profiling than analogous beliefs in other domains, such as the belief that Facebook likes reveal personality (Study 6). These findings identify a novel lay theory that underpins people’s meta-cognitions about their confidence in appearance-related judgments and their policy positions.

Support for increasing low-wage workers’ compensation: The role of fixed-growth mindsets about intelligence.

“…Observing the discourse, we could not help but see mindset-resonant language on both sides of the debate. Thus, this research extends our programs of work investigating how the science of mindsets can shape people’s policy positions (e.g., Madan et al, 2019, Madan, Savani, et al, 2022; Rattan et al, 2012, 2015, 2018; Savani et al, 2017), our work on developing motivational approaches to understanding economic inequities (Rattan et al, 2012; Savani & Rattan, 2012), and our work extending the study of mindsets to organizational contexts (Rattan & Ozgumus, 2019). The current research highlights the crucial theoretical and practical value that can be generated by drawing the psychology of mindsets into the study of workplace dynamics, such as around minimum wage.…”

How can digital technology deployment empower supply chain financing? A resource orchestration perspective

“…Figure 2(c) and (d), indicates that financing alignment has no moderating effect between the depth of DT deployment and SCT. Specifically, as Figure 2(b) shows, the three estimates from the binning estimator, labeled L, M and H, sit almost right on the estimated linear marginal-effect line from the true standard multiplicative interaction model, suggesting the breadth of DT deployment had a significant effect at low, medium and high levels of financing alignment (Madan et al. , 2022; Hainmueller et al.…”

“…Figure 2(c) and (d), indicates that financing alignment has no moderating effect between the depth of DT deployment and SCT. Specifically, as Figure 2(b) shows, the three estimates from the binning estimator, labeled L, M and H, sit almost right on the estimated linear marginal-effect line from the true standard multiplicative interaction model, suggesting the breadth of DT deployment had a significant effect at low, medium and high levels of financing alignment (Madan et al, 2022;Hainmueller et al, 2018). While Figure 2(d) displays the marginal-effect estimates and the binning estimator, the point estimates from the binning estimator grow smaller between typical low and typical medium levels of financing alignment and then smaller between typical medium and typical high levels of financing alignment.…”

“…Based on Madan et al (2022) and Hainmueller et al (2018), this study plotted the moderating effect with confidence intervals and marginal effects. Figure 2 presents the relationship between DT deployment and SCT under high, middle and low levels of financing alignment.…”

Judging a book by its cover: Cultural differences in inference of the inner state based on the outward appearance.

“…Consider facial profiling, which relies on cutting-edge technologies to detect or infer people's characters based on their faces. It is built upon the assumption that one's physical appearance reflects one's underlying character (Madan et al, 2022). It claims to be useful for detecting criminals (Wu & Zhang, 2016), preventing terrorism (Adee, 2016), predicting risk tolerance (Iskowitz, 2019), and identifying suitable employees for hiring (Harwell, 2019).…”