What does the transmitted image of a human face tell an observer about personality traits?

Abstract

We experimentally examine the question of how adequately a person’s individual psychological characteristics can be perceived using the expression of his/her face as the basis of assessment. The research method is based on comparison between participants’ personality traits and the beholder’s assessment of individual psychological characteristics of his partner in communication on the basis of the expression of his facial image, either whole or fragmented (masked). Assessment of personality traits was carried out on the basis of R. B. Cattell’s 16-transformed scales. The participants were instructed to assess two male and two female human faces displayed on a monitor. Each image had five Variants: fully open, represented by the top, bottom, right or left side. It is shown that nearly 40% of personality traits of the ‘communicated’ participant are correctly estimated on the basis of the expression of the image of a whole face. The accuracy of estimations using the right and left halves of a facial image coincides and is indistinguishable from those of the image of a whole face. Individual psychological characteristics of a person are perceived less accurately using the lower part of a face, and worst of all using the top. No difference in the accuracy of recognition of single personality traits is discerned when viewing the whole face compared to the fragmentary image. ‘Optimism’ and ‘peculiarity’ are recognized most effectively for all types of masking and types of face; least recognized is ‘meaningfulness’. Successful assessment of the expression of the whole and fragmented facial images suggests various predictors: in perception of the whole face — high self-control as an attribute of the beholder; in perception of a horizontally partitioned face — his/her dependence on the group; in perception of a vertically partitioned face — poor social contact.

Nous avons examiné expérimentalement dans quelle mesure les sujets arrivent à percevoir des caractéristiques psychologiques individuelles à partir d’une photo de visage. On compare les évaluations par un sujet des traits de personnalité d’un individu par des participants qui ne voient qu’une image de son visage (complet ou partiellement masqué), avec ses traits effectifs. Les 16 échelles transformées de R. Cattell ont été utilisées pour l’évaluation des traits de la personnalité. La tâche des participants était d’évaluer les visages de deux hommes et deux femmes présentés sur un écran d’ordinateur. Cinq versions de chaque image ont été présentées: visage complet; visage présenté dans sa partie haute, basse, droite ou gauche. Près de 40% des traits individuels sont correctement perçus à partir du visage complet. L’efficacité d’évaluation de la partie droite et gauche du visage est la même et ne diffère pas de celle du visage complètement ouvert. La précision est moins bonne pour la partie basse du visage, et encore moins pour la partie haute. Il n’y a pas de spécificité dans la reconnaissance des traits particuliers selon que le visage est vu complètement ou de manière fragmentaire. ‘L’optimisme’ et ‘l’originalité’ sont les traits les mieux reconnus dans tous les cas de masquage; ‘l’intelligence’ est le trait le moins reconnu. La reconnaissance efficace de l’expression du visage est liée à différents traits prédicteurs chez le destinataire (évalués eux-aussi sur les mêmes échelles de Cattell): pour l’interprétation du visage complet — un niveau élevé ‘d’autocontrôle’; pour l’interprétation du visage masqué horizontalement — sa ‘dépendance au groupe’; pour l’interprétation du visage masqué verticalement — un faible ‘contact social’.

Keywords

Adequacy of interpersonal perception Expressive organization of a face Facial expression Perception of the whole and fragmentary face Predictors of insight

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