Judging a Book by Its Cover: Children's Facial Trustworthiness as Judged by Strangers Predicts Their Real‐World Trustworthiness and Peer Relationships

Li, Qinggong; Heyman, Gail D.; Mei, Jing; Lee, Kang

doi:10.1111/cdev.12907

Cited by 19 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…There is also some evidence that adults can form accurate impressions of trustworthiness (Li, Heyman, Mei, & Lee, 2017) and honesty (Zebrowitz et al, 1996) from A KERNEL OF TRUTH IN IMPRESSIONS 6 children's faces. Adults' impressions of trustworthiness from children's faces predicted actual trustworthiness in those children one year later (Li, et al, 2017). This result suggests there may be valid signals of trustworthiness in children's faces, whether this link arises through a self-fulfilling prophecy or is based on evolution.…”

Section: Are Impressions Of Children's Faces Accurate?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is possible that these ambient images capture more valid information about behaviour and personality than face images taken in the lab under controlled conditions, which the majority of accuracy studies have used (cf. Alaei & Rule, 2019;Foo et al, 2019;Li et al, 2017;Penton-Voak et al, 2006;Pound, Penton-Voak, & Brown, 2007;Pound et al, 2008;Rhodes et al, 2013;Stirrat & Perrett, 2010;Sutherland et al, 2018). For example, nicer children might be more likely to smile for their parent's photograph, or more likely to be naturally captured smiling, than children who are less nice.…”

Section: Why Might Impressions Of Niceness Be Accurate?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is also some evidence that adults can form accurate impressions of trustworthiness (Li et al, 2019) and honesty (Zebrowitz et al, 1996) from children’s faces. Adults’ impressions of trustworthiness from children’s faces predicted actual trustworthiness in those children 1 year later (Li et al, 2019).…”

Section: Are Impressions Of Children’s Faces Accurate?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, we also extended previous research by testing accuracy across multiple images of the same child’s face instead of a single face image. In typical accuracy studies, participants form impressions from a single standardised image of a stranger’s face, and this impression is compared with reports of actual personality or behaviour (e.g., Bond et al, 1994; Carré et al, 2009; Foo et al, 2019; Haselhuhn & Wong, 2012; Kleisner et al, 2014; Li et al, 2019; Stillman et al, 2010; Stirrat & Perrett, 2010; Zebrowitz et al, 2002; Zebrowitz & Rhodes, 2004). Almost nothing is known about the accuracy of impressions across different images containing natural variability in one’s appearance.…”

Section: Measuring Accuracy Using Multiple Ambient Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adults’ facial impressions of children’s niceness, but not shyness, show modest accuracy

Collova

Sutherland

Jeffery

et al. 2020

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Lay wisdom warns against “judging a book by its cover.” However, facial first impressions influence people’s behaviour towards others, so it is critical that we understand whether these impressions are at all accurate. Understanding impressions of children’s faces is particularly important because these impressions can have social consequences during a crucial time of development. Here, we examined the accuracy of two traits that capture the most variance in impressions of children’s faces, niceness and shyness. We collected face images and parental reports of actual niceness/shyness for 86 children (4–11 years old). Different images of the same person can lead to different impressions, and so we employed a novel approach by obtaining impressions from five images of each child. These images were ambient, representing the natural variability in faces. Adult strangers rated the faces for niceness (Study 1) or shyness (Study 2). Niceness impressions were modestly accurate for different images of the same child, regardless of whether these images were presented individually or simultaneously as a group. Shyness impressions were not accurate, for images presented either individually or as a group. Together, these results demonstrate modest accuracy in adults’ impressions of niceness, but not shyness, from children’s faces. Furthermore, our results reveal that this accuracy can be captured by images which contain natural face variability, and holds across different images of the same child’s face. These results invite future research into the cues and causal mechanisms underlying this link between facial impressions of niceness and nice behaviour in children.

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Section: Are Impressions Of Children's Faces Accurate?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Why Might Impressions Of Niceness Be Accurate?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Are Impressions Of Children’s Faces Accurate?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measuring Accuracy Using Multiple Ambient Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Adults’ facial impressions of children’s niceness, but not shyness, show modest accuracy

Collova

Sutherland

Jeffery

et al. 2020

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One study showed that, based on thin slice video fragments, youth's externalizing problems and temperament can be judged above chance levels by unacquainted observers (Tackett et al, 2017). Another study using photographs showed that children's trustworthiness can be judged above chance levels by unacquainted adults and children as well (Li et al, 2019). Judgments of the children's trustworthiness were mediated by the extent to which the children were well-liked among their classroom peers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Thin-Slice Judgments of Children’s Social Status and Behavior

Lansu

Berg

2020

The Journal of Experimental Education

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The moment a child walks into a new classroom, teachers and classmates form an impression based on minimal information. Yet, little is known about the accuracy of such impressions when it concerns children's social functioning at school. The current study examined the accuracy of children's, teachers' and adults' impressions of 18 unacquainted children based on thin slices of behavior. The likeability, popularity, prosocial behavior, aggression, and exclusion of these children were judged by 101 children, 79 elementary school teachers, and 68 young adults based on 20-second video clips. Judges were better than chance in predicting popularity and prosocial behavior, but worse than chance in predicting aggression and exclusion. Female judges were more accurate judging social exclusion of same-sex than other-sex targets. Teachers were more accurate than children in their judgments of prosocial behavior. The current study shows that confidence in one's impression of aggression and exclusion in unacquainted children based on minimal information is not warranted. KEYWORDS Accuracy; children; social functioning; teachers; thin slices THE MOMENT A CHILD walks into a new classroom, teachers and classmates form an impression. However, it is unclear how accurate such impressions are. As these types of impressions are the basis of subsequent expectations and behavior toward that person (Ambady et al., 2000), inaccurate impressions may be the prelude of negative social interactions. The current study therefore examines the accuracy of children's, teachers', and adults' impressions regarding a child's social behavior and status in the classroom context. Impressions of Children Numerous studies have examined the reliability of the impressions people form about an unacquainted adult (Hall et al., 2016). Even when these impressions are based on observations of less than 5 minutes, so called 'thin slices', studies have shown that people's initial impressions of a person's personality, political preference, and sexual orientation are quite accurate. (see Ambady et al., 2000 for an overview). Yet, it remains unknown whether peopleadults and age matescan also accurately estimate children's social behavior and status. Previous studies regarding impressions of children predominantly focused on children's academic behaviors. These studies showed that teachers quickly form impressions about hypothetical as well as their own students' future academic behavior and performance (Ritts et al., 1992; Rubie-Davies, 2018). These impressions are based on a variety of characteristics, including

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A New Look at Person Memory

Horgan

2020

Social Intelligence and Nonverbal Communication

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Judging a Book by Its Cover: Children's Facial Trustworthiness as Judged by Strangers Predicts Their Real‐World Trustworthiness and Peer Relationships

Cited by 19 publications

References 53 publications

Adults’ facial impressions of children’s niceness, but not shyness, show modest accuracy

Adults’ facial impressions of children’s niceness, but not shyness, show modest accuracy

Thin-Slice Judgments of Children’s Social Status and Behavior

A New Look at Person Memory

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