zebrowitz 1997 reading faces - cap 2

8/3/2019 Zebrowitz 1997 Reading Faces - Cap 2

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As a rule II nmta%face says nrore uf in ter~sihan does his tu~zguc. . it

is the Inonogram of a21 his thougtlts mid nsyim l;o~zs,

-Schopenhauer, "On Phy-siopomy,"1851

Although many would dispute the claim that thoughts m d aspirations

am imprinted on the face, there is much that i s reflected in the face, and

the attempt to discover why people persist in using the face as a key to

psychological t-raits may be advanced by considering i-vbat a p-son's face

does reveal. Various facial qualities can tell us a lot about a person. Some

of these va lities are strucbrai, Like the shape and size of the head and

face; the color, lines, blotches, texture, and sagging of the skin; the size,

shape, and location of the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; and the m o u n tand color of scalp and facial hair. Other diagnostic facial va lities are dy-

namic, like muscular movements, changes in coloration @,g., blushkg

and blanching), gaze direction, and pupiX dilation and contraction. Still

other facial qualities are "artificial,"" ike hairstyle, glasses, and makeup.

Through h a t e associations, evolutionarily prepared learnhg, md cul-

turally specjfic learning, these facial qualities can reveal the stable per-sonal attributes; of sex, race, and ide~~tity;he rapidly chmging attribute

of m ot im ; md the more slowly chmging attributes of agemd physicdand mental fitness.' Detecting each of these attributes is important for

adaptive behavior, be it to p m o t e species survival or to attain individ-

ual goals. We could not f'tmction well k his world if we were tmi-rble to

differentiate men from worncn, friends from strangers, the angered horn

the happy, the healthy from the uniit, or childre11 from adults. For this

reason, the tendency to ~ s p o n do the facia walities that reveal these at-

kibutes may be so strong that it is overgeneralized to people whose faces



merely resemble those who actually have the attribute. In this chapter, I

consikr f i t ? ability of facial cues to reveal various adaptiwely s i p s c a n t

attributes, and in Chapter 3 1 demonstrate how overgeneralized re-

sponses to some of these facial cues may serve as a foundation for readingtraits in faces.

Facial Cues to Age

The growth process from birth to makrritfi is accompmied by changes inthe face that are reliable cues to age. These changes, which are described

in more &tail in Chapter 4, yield a relittjvely smaller, more backward-slopjng forehead; relatively smaller, higher placed eyes; and a relatively

bigger, more protrusive chin in Ule ad d t face. The head is also malter rel-

ative to the body in an ad d t than in a child, ancd an adult's skin is darker

Ihm that of a child. Like maturalion, the aging process also produces fa-

cial char~ges,most notably in the quality of the skin,which becorns pro-

gressively more leathery; crinkled, open-pared, and blemished. Age-

related changes inconrtective tissue, bone loss, and the resorption of fatty

tissue also yietd a less angular jaw, pouches, saggil7g skin, and a doublechin.%~omeof these chmges cause the elderly face to revert tm a more in-farmtile appearance.

h ddition to the foregoing static cues tru age provided by facial stmc-

ture m d skin quality, there are also dynamic cues to age provided by fa-

cial movements. The point-light t e c h i ~ eas been used to reveal the n-

fornation provided by faciat movemat that is independex~t f stmcturc?.

People's faces are vide&aped with small pieces of refiective tape af,Cixed

to them, When these tapes are played with the bri&ht.ss reduced andthe contrast maximized, what one sees is the movement of small lumi-

nous dots. W e n viewers are asked to guess the age of a particular face,

their guess ""-C" much more accurak when they see the video than when

they are shorn only a freeze-frme of it, thmby demo~~stratinghat Lhe

facial, movements are adding information about age aver and atstave

whatever structural infornation the dots provide. What has not yet been

determined is the nature of the age differtmces in facial mowerrrent-

whether, for example, there are differences in the m ou n t of movementin the symmelry of movement, or in the abmptness of movement onset

and offset."

Not only does the face change with age, but also there is a good deal of

consensusand accuracy inguessing people" sage fmm their facial ay year-

awe. Research has shown that people show high agreement with one an-

ather in their estimates af the ages a l 1Ben and women who ranged from

their mid 211s to their late 60s. In most cases, these estimates were quite ac-



curate, missing the mark by no more than 3 to 7 years."he ability to dis-

cern age from facial cues devclops early. By the pmschool years, childre11

are proficient ill usir-rg age category labtlls to identify people pictured in

facial photographs and to rank interns of age faces of people who rangefrom infancy to over 70 years. "oreover, children base their judgments

on the s m e information t h t adults use, such as heacf shape and kacril

rink ling.^ One young child, when asked how he knew that a particular

face was a baby, obsewed: "He's a baby because he's got a big forehead.

It's bigger for his face than m be is or yours is.''7

Research has not fimly established whether the ability to differentiate

younger from older faces has a specific neurai locus, but there is some ev-

idence that hdividuals with particular types of brain dm ag e have diffi-culty identifying people's ages from their facese8There is also evidence

for t-he development of age recognition very early inl&. Even il7fants as

young as 4 months of age cm discriminate faces of di.ferent agesSgM e n

a strallge child approaches a baby, the most common respontje is a smile,

and negative reackions are virtuatly nol~existe~~t.uite the opposite oc-

curs when a strange ad d t approaches a baby. By 9 or 1.0 mont%rsof age,

most babies exhibit some negative reaction, either froming, looking

away, mo\ling away, or crying. A babfs more positive reaction to childre11does not reflect merely their sm a l h st;z tu~. abies also show negative re-

actions when they are approached by a midget, who has the face of an

a d d t -and the size of a chitd. Thus, babies appear to firtd the faces of

strange children less threatenb~ghan those of strange adults, a reaction

that may have had evolutionary adaptive value.I0

AlChough pcopk's age estimtes are quite accurate, we do sometimes

misjudge, m d there are some people whose ages are consistently over- or

un de~s timted. . ome people are "ccarded" at bars and liquor stores untilthey amwell past the legal drinking age, and 1 cm vividly rcrnember tfie

embarrassment of mistakjng a toddfer's kther for her grandhther, It is

interesting that age estimaks that deviate from someone's true chrono-

logical age may correspo~~do that person's biologicat age. Thus, there

may be a bit of tru"cErin.what appear to be mistaken age perceptions. Men

between the ages of 17m d 92 who look old for their age to physicians

who h c ,w noehing about them show respolxses typicai of people older

thm themselves on subsequent examhation. For example, their lm g ca-pacity and blood pressure are at levels that would be expected. for some-

what oider men. f r ~or~trast,hose who look young fc,r their age show re-

sponses typical of people younger than themselves, Moreover, older

appearing men betwem the ages of 45 and 75 died sooner than their

younger looking peers. W elher facial cues to age are critical to t-hese ef-

fects remains to be detcrmi,ned, skce the whole range of appearance in-

formation was available to the doctors making the age estimates."



FadaX Cues to Sex

People readily identify a person's sex from facial cues. Facial hair andsmoo&ness of skin arc. the most obvious indicators, a l thosh this sex dif-

ference is morcj marked among Caucasims than other racial groups- Scalp

hair is also used as a cue? to sex, despite cultural and hisbrical variations

in this marker. hother , more subtle irrdicator is skin tone. Warnell from a

wide range of cultures m d racial backgrounds are lighter skinned than

men of the same group, even when skin tone is assessed in parts of the

body that have little exposure to the sun.IZOther subtle markers of a per-

son's sex are struct-ural differences between male and female faces. Al-Ihougfi. people may not he awam of respmding to these subtk cues to

sex, they are described here because their hterestirzg parallels to age cues

have implications far the tmderstandh2g of sex stereotypes, as is shown in

Chapter 5, The stmcture of the female face is, in many respects, similar to

that of the infanl-ile face, whereas the male facial structure is more similar

to that of the mature face.

Because males generally have a larger body size and cosrespmdingly

bigger lungs and larger airways, they tend to have proporti0nate:Lylarger noses than .females do. As s h w n in Figure 2.1, the male nose is

generally more protmsive, ranging from a straight to a convex profile,

r/vhc.rcas the kmale nose tends to range from a strajght to a somewhat

concave profile. The male nose is also longer and kvider, with larger and

m r e &ring nostrils and a higher nasal bridge. The upshot of these sex

differex~cess that m m are more apt to have a roman nose, and women

are more apt to have a pug nose. Men are also more apt to have a Nean-

derthal forehcad,As shown in Figurqj 2.1, a man's forehead tends to pro-trude just above the nose a d yes and then to slope backward, whereas

the forehead of a woman is more upright. The appearance of the eyes

also tends to differ for m n and women. A man" seys appear more deep

set owing to the protrusiveness of his nose and ftrret-read, whereas a

wo?nan"s eyes look rnore prominent. For the snlne reason, a woman's

cheekbones tend to look more prominent than a man". Finally, a man's

jaw tends to be proportionately larger than a womanfs.'"t is surprising

that sex can even be discriminated from the face of a young infant, anachjevement that may reflect sensitkity to the fact that m l e neonates

have larger heads a~rdaces than fmales. , They also have somewhat

smaller eyes and lower eyebrows*

In addition to sex differaces in facial structure, there are also differ-

ences in the way trhe facial muscles move. "f"he point-light trcchnique,

which was mentioned earlier, has shown that movements add hfor~xa-

tion about sex over and above whatever stmctural information the dots



FIGURE 2.1 Sex [email protected] fircinl st?.zdckure.D. H. nlow (2982).Handbook of fa-

cial grtlwth Ifigzires 1-5, 3-61. P1~ihd~Ephifii.l:~uladers~

provide. The precise nature of sex differences in facial movement remainsto be discovered.15

Although research has not established whether the ability to differenti-

ate male and female faces has a specific r~euralocus, fiere is some evi-

dence that individuals with particular types of brain dmilge have diff-i-

culty identifying people's sex from their faces.'"There is also evidence

that sex identification develops very early in life. After l o o h g at a pair of

identical faces, 5-month-old irtfants take more notice kvhen one of them is

replaced with a face of a different sex than when it is replaced with a faceof the same sex,I7and children as yow~g s 19 months oi age are able to

apply appropriate sex labels to photographs of adult faces.IRDespite the

sex differences in facial st-mcturc and movement and the evidence for

early sensitivity to this information, people can be fooled: There is evi-

dence that the Mona Lisa may be a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci;Ig

the m e h e r s of the Billy Xpton Trio of jazz musicims, s h w n in Figure

2.2, all passed for males, yet one is a female.

Facial Cues to Ethnicity and Race

I had just purchased a beautiful carved woodpecker from a crusty,

87-year-old man in Nova Scotia when he began a conversation that made

me wish I had never set foot in his house.



FIGURE 2.2 %TileBilly Tiyfon Trio. APIWz'de Wodd Photos,

"'Are you from Boston?"he asked. "Yes,"" replied. " h e w it,"k aid.

"I can always tell where someone is from by their face. :Ican always spot

those Jews from NW York whe11 they come in here with their hig noses,

like that Jewish actor on TV,Tellly Sa\ralas.,","

Although &is man expressed a commonly held assumptim about &c.recog~~izabilityf Jews,his powers of disce ent were not so keen as he

thought. I was a Jew of New York origin, having lived in the Bostan area

only a half dozen ).ears at that time, and Savalas is of Greek heritage. The

old mar13 errors are not uncornmaxl. Indeed, over the years I have been

privy to mmy mti-Semitic remarks uttered by people who assumed from

my appearme that I was not Jewish. fudgjrzg someone" religious or eth-

nic background from facial appearance is c o m a ~ ~ p l a c eand mt aiways

linged with reiijgiclus or ethnic slurs). AIthough most of us are wiseenough to know that appearmce is not always a reliable predictor of eth-

~Gcity,t is thC" rare person who has not at one time or another said, "Gee,

she doesdt . look Jewish [orXrish or Italjan or Swt.di&]." Perhaaps this de-

rives from a kernel of &uth to e h i c appearance stereotypes. fndeed, a%-

thou* ethnic identification from appearance is subject to error, there is

some evidence for izbove-chance performance in identifying Jews from

physiognomy alone, although they tend to be confused with I t a l i a n ~ . ~ ~



Such confusion may reflect s h w t i e s n the appearance of certain Jews

and others of Mediterranean origin, a finding that recalls the old wood-

carver's assertion that Telly Savalas isJewish.

The fact is that them is a relationsMp between etMcit)i and facial ap-pearance, although the correlation is certainly not perfect. Certain ethnic

groups differ in the predo&ance of two major facial types that have

been identified by physical an&opologists. One facial type accompanies

a long narrow head fo rq called doichocephaEcm). he other type ac-

companies a wide, sharlt, globulnr head fom, called brachyceph*~ (BC).

To get a sense of how the DC and BC face types differ, imagine that the

head is like a rubber balloon that canbe squeezed or stretched,as shown

in Figure 2.3, 'The extreme version of a squeezed, dali&weph&c balloonhead yields a face with a convex profile, like profile b in Figure 2.3. It is a

relatively angular face, narrow, long, and protrusive, with close-set eyes;

a relatively thin, longishf and protrusive nose with a high bridge; and a

relatively receding chin. The forehead in this face tends to slope back-

ward and to jut out over the eyes, which consequently appear deep set.

The extreme version of the sketched BC balloon head yields a face wifh a

concave profife, like profile d in Figure 2.3. It is short, broad, and flat with

wide-set eyes, a short, puglike nose, and a prominent chin. The foreheadin this face tends to be upright, the eyes are bulging, and tftecheekbones

are squared and prominent. There is, of course, a range of face types

within any given ethnic group, withmany faces being a mixture of types,

called mmwephalic. Nevertheless, one or the other type of face tends to

pwdominate in different groups. The DC face tends to be more prevalent

than he BC face in Great Britain, &mdinavia, northern Africa, India, and

the Middle Eastern c o u n t ~ sf km,Afghanisb, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia*

The BC face tends to predominate in middle Europe and the Far East.*l Itis intereskg that the BC head type is in many respects similar to the in-

fantile head, winereas the DC head type is more similar to the mature

head. Indeed, an anatomy textbook statesthat the brachycephalic type of

face "appears more juvenile-like because it resembles the wide-face con-

figuration characterizing a child. A dolichwephalic adult face 'fooks'

more mature because the nasal region is vertically longer."*

Like ethnicity, race is tpically identified from facial eues. Although

physical mthropofogists agree that common racial gmupings are notvalid scientific categories, such groups are nevertheless identified bylaypersuns. The primary basis of idensation is skin calor, dthaugh fa-

cial features may also be used. People with broad noses and thick lips

tend to be categorized as members of the Negroid race. People with

S&-bridged noses and slanted eyes tend to be categorized as members

of the Mongoloid race. People with faces (if male) and protntdhg

noses tend to be categorized as members of the Caucasian race. Indeed,



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the first VVestan visitors to Korea were dubbed "bignoses" by heirA i m

hosts, and lrhe word for both fmig ner and westemer in Cbinese is dazi,

which literally means "'big nose." Fhally; it is also possible that variations

in muscular movements can be used to identify race, shce some differ-ences in the facial musculature of racial groups have been noted.23

It is hteresting to consider how people come to discern ethicity and

race from facial appearance, Researchers have not hvest-igated at what

age this ability is acquimd nor how it it;influenced by experience,

Facial Cues to Identity

Like snowflakes, no two faces are alike. Imagine that snowflakes were

large mough that you cmld readily see their ur~ique e s i p and that you

are given the task of recognizing htlndrt.ds or thousands of them-not

only recognizjng which ones you had seen before but also attaching a dis-

tinctive llarne to each one. This sounds like itr.2 impossible task or at least

one that would requil.e a great deal of efJlort, yet we aulomatically and ef-

fortlessly accomplish such recognition of humm faces. Moreover, once

we have learr~ed face, we rarely forget it. Fifty years after graduatingfrom high school, people sholved almost perkct accuracy in identifying

faces taken from their own hi@ school yearbooks as opposed to those

taken .fromother yeahooks of the same era,24

The particular facial characteristics that en&le us to recognize someone

am digicult to describe, for it is the entire gestalt, or facial configuration,

that matters rather than individual feahnres. -The gestalt is &astically al-

tered when faces are inverted, and this trmfonnation makes recognition

extremely difficult,Un. the other hand, we can still =cognize peoyle afterthey've cut their hair, shaved their beard, or switched from glasses to con-

tact lenses.. We c m recognize people whether theyke smilhg or crying.

We can even recopize peoplc after tficy%ehad their nose ''fixed." or their

jaw enhanced, and all of trhe saggi~~i;nd bagginf: and wrinkling in arl

aging face doesn't prevent us from, recognizing m d d friend whom we

haven" seen for many years, The continuity of idcntiv in the fare over

time c m be seen in the individuals depicted in Figure 2.4.

Whatever it is &out a face that conveys a person's identily may alsoenahle us to rcscognize kin. Indeed, one of the first questions asked about

a neW$om baby is, ""Whc,mdoes she look like?'%lthough some may no-tice that baby's fingers are long m d slender like grandma's, most of us

focus m facial resemblances, Mlrjtten under the ncwbom photo in my

son's baby aihum is a &tailed analysis of whose eyes, whose nose, whose

mouth, and even whose earlobes he had iherited. A biological mthro-

pologist has suggested that this fascinatim with identjfying kinship re-



FIGURE 2.4 Jofzl.2 E Kcrnncdy in childlzood am2 adulthood (tof7); Flelen

Xeller in childlzood arzd adzilfl.raod (bottom).APmide World Photos.

sclmblar~cesmay reflect our biological heritage and me113 sterc?st in de-

tecting the legitimacy of their illleged offspring. AIChough kinship resem-

blances are often subtle, a discern@ perceiver can often identify them, as

the reader may be able to for t-he faces depicted in F ip re 2.5.

The thgme of physicd resemblmce as a m & e r of a genetic relation can

be found in child and adult literature. The classic tale of the Ugly Duck-

ling teaches children not o ~ ~ l yhat the unfortunate among them may be

late bliaamers, who wilt come into their own, btrt also that the belief infamily resemblances is a valid one, The sibling vvho looked different was

notf after all, a sibijllg. The SQXI1Nh0 does 110t resembk his faher in Emily

Bronte's W llfher ing Heights is also m outcast. The light-hired, fair-

skifined Linton Heatl-rcliff learns to his dismay that he is physically quite

$iffc.re~~trom his black-haired, dark-eyed father, Disappointed by the

physical appeaanm of his son, Meatlnclifi's dislike of the boy becomes

more and more apparent with the passage of time.25



FIGURE 2.5 Gfockwisefront zipper feft are frtwe s i s fc~ , ylvia

Warrerz, Lisn Zebra, a d Leslie Zebrctwitrz, n~zdTz u~zrelated i-ierzd,

Jml~nontrcparc.

It is interesting that peaple" striking ability to identify faces is consid-

erably weakened when the fares am not of their own mce. Researchmcmss-race face recopition, in which people arc asked to identify faces

they have seen before, jndicates that people have more difficulty recog-

nizing faces of a race other than heir own, an effect that can have adverse

social consequences ranging from the wro~~gfrtlonviction of misidenti-

fied defendants to the embarrassing confusion of people in social set-

t i n g ~ . ~ ~here is also anecdotal evidence to indicate that people have more

difficulty differentiathg ethnicities that are unfamiliar to them than those

that are morc? familiar. For e x w e , Westcmers oftm report more diffi-culty differentiating Japanese from Chinese or Korean faces than differcn-

tiating Italian from Irish or Sweclish faces. Mthougil this fact suggests

that perc-eptual experiences other than exposure to a particular face ptay a

significant role in identity recognition, research has not &own a strmg,

consisknt relationship hetkveen the debiiity in cross-race face recognit io~~

and prejudice or crass-racial experience-at least within the range of such

experiences that have been studied.I7 However, it is possible that the



qualiv of cross-racial experience is crucial. Immersion in another racial

p u p , experiences that dernand attentior.~o other race faces, or perccp-

hildexperiemes very early itl life may be critical to the ability to identify

faces of another race with the s m e facility that one identifies own-racefaces. Perhaps extracting ide~~titynformation from faces is like language

acqz~isition:ust ilsexperience with a particdar language very early in life

is necessary to become truly fluent, so may early experience with a partic-

ular set of faces be essentiaf to facile r ec o e t im .

There is considerable widence that face recognition has a specific

neural locus. ElectPophysiologicaI recordings made from the brains of

mor.~kejdswhile they are viewing various visual stimufi reveal that certain

neurons respond specifically to faces-either human faces or monkeyfaces. Moreover, some of these neurons respmd more to certain faces

than to others, thereby providing a basis for the recog~~itionf differe~~t

bdividuals." b e n sheep braks show specialization of ce rh h cells for

face recognition, a finding that is consistent with the importance to a

sheep of accurate facial recognitior.2. Sheep prefer to interact with mem-

bers of their own breed, md jrtformation about breed is conveyed by the

face. Sheep also recognize their offspring by their faces rather than by

other featclres. Eurthamore, sheep kr~ow o whom they should subrrritand bvhom they c m domiurate by the size of each other's horns-The activ-

ity of the specialized face-recognition cells in the sheep" brain reflect

these various frtnctions. Some cells reipor~d trongly to faces from a fa-

miliar breed and very little to other animal faces. Other cells respond

more to mimals with large horns than those with small ar no horns. Still

another g r o q of cells rwpond more to faces of humans a d heepdogs

tX7m to sheep or other mimal faces.B It appears, therefore, that there is a

specjfic neural locus for species recognition as well as for the recognitionof individuals within a g i vm species.

Although invasive electrophysiologicd recordings cannot be per-

fomed on humans, developmental and clhical evidence does indicate a

specilic neurological basis of face recognitbr.2. N e w b m hfants, 9 min-utes old, show rapt attention to a moving schematic face but not to other

rnoving patterns, and nevvboms who are only hours old are capable of

recogl7izing their mother3 face, preferring to lock at their mother or a

still video image of her rather than a strangecmOther evidellce of neuralw i h g specific to face recognition in humms is provided, by a disorder

called pms~pagnasia~hich meam "not knowir~g en+.'' This deficit re-

sults from a parLicular type of brain damitge: bilaterd lesions that irtvolve

the occipitotemporal sector of the central visual system.31People with

such lesions show a perceptual deficit in face recopition. Cor~siderfie

following case recounted by Bliver Sacks in.his best-selling book TheMklrn

Whc~M6fook His Wif"e,for Na f :



Following a severe automobile accident, with uncvnsciousness for three

weeks, [a man of 321 complained, excltrsiveIy, of an inability to recognise

faces, even thctse of his wife and children. Not a single face was ""familiar" "t o

him,but there were three he a>uld dentify; . . .one with

aneye-blinking tic,

one with a large mole on his cheek, and a third because he was so tall and

thin that no one else was likehim..Each of these. . .was recognized solely by

the single prt~minent eature mentioned, In general [the patient] recognised

famitiars only by their voices. He had difficulty even recognizing Kmseff in a

mirror, . . .On the other hand, simple schematic objects-scissors, watch,

key-presented nct diffi~ufties,'~

The deficits that prosopag11osic.ssbw in face pe~eption re quite spe-

cific. These hdividuals are able to say whi& two faces are the same andwhich are different, They are also able to identify correctly facial exyres-

sions of emotio1.1. What they cannot do is perceive f i t ? : idex~tity f a face

that should be familia to thern. They may also have dif-iculty icfentifying

the age and sex of persons from lheir faces, although like emotion percep-

tion, these abilities c m remain intact even in the absence of obvious cues

such as hail. length- Gemrally spe"k;ing, people with prosopagnosia have

no impaiment in intelligmce and no lmguage defirits, They may alsv

have m difficdty recogl~iizingcotors, picture" oohjects, voices, ormelocrties. However, the loss of face recognil.ion sometimes co-occurs with

other recopition deficits, including animal recognition,probably because

the brain areas in which face-recognitio1.1 cdls are hunrt also contail7 cells

respmsive to these

Facial Cues to Emotion and Deception

:In contrast to the wanling "'don't judge a book by its coverr"wwhic is in-

voked when we form impressivns of people's character, we speak quite

comfortably about "reading" 'meone" emotions or of kar being "writ-

ten'kn t-he face. The fact is that a person's emotionai state is revealed in

the face. Considerable research has demonstrated that at least seven basic

emotions can be accwately communicated by facial expressims: hapyi-ness, fear, surprise, anger, sadness, disgust and contempt." One can eas-

ily recognize the expressions sho\vn in Figure 2.6. The hi t ted eyebrowsof sadnessand Ihewick eyes of surprise are familiar to all, as is, of course,

the srnile of happiness. Whereas these photos identiq static facial quali-

ties that commmicate various emotions, there are also dynamic, move-

ment cues. Indeed, people are m o ~cculate at guessing the emotion

someone has reported experiencing when t-hey view film clips of the fa-

cial expression than when they view slides of the same expressions taken

from the filrnse3jMoreover, the point-light technique has demonstrated



that movement infornation itself is suffi-

cient for the accurate idel-ttificatisn of

emotions even when no information

about the shape and position of facial fea-tures is discer~~ible.or example, anger is

conveyed by downward movement in,the

forehead area and compression in the

moutrh area, whereas; s u r p ~ s es conveyed

by strong upward movement in the brow

area coupled with strong downward

movement in the jaw area.36

Whereas the static and dy n a m i q ~ ~ a l i -ties that have been described invoke spe-

cific, local changes in the face for each ex-

pression, a more abstract characterizalion

of anger has been detemined in an inge

I7ious study of primitive m s k s from a va-

riety of cultures. Compared with non-

threatening masks, those known to have a

threatening social function cox-ttain morediagond and angular features, such as

vertricaa lines between the eyebrows, diag-

onal cheekbone lines, triangular eyes &d

nose, and pohted chin, beard, and ears.

Nonthreatening masks had more curvi-

linear features. Tlxerefo~, iagonal and

angular facial qualities communicate

anger. 7

The fact that primitive masks have ihe

same meaning to modern observers as

they do in their cultures of origin sup-

p r t s Darwin's thesis that the basic ex-

pressions of emotion are universal to the

human species. Further support for the RGlirRE 2.6 Finppiness, surprisls,

pmmlturai gex-teralityof emotion readir-tg land swdlzess. PhoClts currrtesy u f :

is provided by evidence that people from Jlriie Rivss nud JosephCrrnr~iilgimnr.North Amexican, South American, Euro-

pea% African, ar~ d sian countries, including those from an isolated New

Guinea tribe, all see the same emotion in,particular facial expressions.38

At the same time, there are also some cultural differences in emotion

recognition, particularly for negative emotions." ' particular, Japanese

people have more difficulty than others recognizkg negative facial ex-

pressions of emotion, an effect that may reflect a lack of perceptual expe-



rience with such expressions because of cultural proscriptions against

displaying them. 'There is also some evidence that emotion recopitim byAfricm Americms is superior to that shown by whites, an effect that has

been attributed to the fact that expresske infornation has greater impor-tance for those who are ow in social power.

Insofar as emotion perception from facial expressions is culturally tmi-

versal, one might expect that this faculty has a specific neural basis. Some

evidence to support this view is provided by cases of brahl-damaged in-

dividuals. Patients with damage to certab areas of the right hemisphere

show marked deficits in the ability to recognize facial expressions of emo-

tion. Moreover, this deficit does not merely reflect difficulties in under-

standing emotional stimuli but rather is specific to faces. Tltese patientsshow little impairment in their ability to read vocal or po&tural cues to

motion.^"Research with normal populations also localizes the reading of

facial expressions in, the right hemisphere, This research trses what is

called. a divided visrlalfield teclgniqtte, in which facial stimuli are presented

very brkQ to either the right or the left visual field. Because of crisscross-

ing of neural pathways, images projected to the right visual field are re-

ceived first by the left hemisphertr of the brain, whertras those projected to

the left visuat field am eceived first by the right hemispherc?. People areab e to j l ldge more qwickly whether a face has a happy or a sad facial ex-

pression when the face is presented. first to the right hemisphere rather

than to the left, whereas this right hemisphre advantage is weak or ab-

senth he case of neutral expressions." l the r evidence indicates that the

neural basis of face identification, which was discussed prtrviously is in-depende~~tf the neural basis of emotion recoglition. One can identiiy

faces but. fail to recognize their emotional expfessions and vice

The right hemisphere advantage in processing facial exp~ssionss il-lustrated in Figure 2.7, which depicts d r r o r i~nagesof the sitme

schematic face- For those who are right-hmded, a quick glance at these

faces reveals a happier expressim on the bottom face. This is because, for

right-handed individuds, the upbrned mouth in the left: visual field is

processed by the right hemisphere, whereas the downturned mouth in

the right visual field is processed, by the left hemisphere. Because the

right hemisphere dominates in right-handed peo@e, this face looks hap-

pier than the top one, for whicfil right hemispherc! dontinance emphasizesIhe downturned mouth. Those vvho are left-handed may perceive a hap-

pier expression on the top face. 'This is because the brain orgmlization of

many lefC.-handed people differs from that of right-handers.

Like studies of brain-daunaged dividuals, studies of infants could con-

ceivahly shed fight on the quesltion of whether we are "'wiredf9toperceive

partricular emotions in partricular facial expressims. Moweve& t is di,fficult

to discover exactly what a particular emotional exp~ssionmeans to in-



fanb. f i e cannot sh p l y query them about

their perception". &e approach has been to

see whether infants can at least discrim-

inate among different emotional expres-s io~~s .a t researhe= have detemirred is

whether ixlfants show hcreased atlention to

one emotional expression after they have

viewed allother one to the point of bored

battention. If they perk up when a new ex-

pression appears hut not when the old one

reappears, this indicates that they can tell

the two apart, m d hdeed, it turns out thatthey ~irn. 4~

The questior7 rt.mai11s concerning what

meal7ing the different expressions have for

infants, Do they understand that a smile

means happy that a b w n means sad, md

that a scowl means angry? Since infants

don" talk, we are forced to devise clever

ways of answeril7g this w e s t i o ~ ~y ohserv-ing m infant's behaviord reactions. One

ploy has been to see how different facial ex-

p s s io n s affect an nfant's reactions to loud

noises. From early infancy, there is a ten-

dewy to blink in response tom unexpectedFXGURE 2.7 Left side of th e

face dominniies ernotinn perccp-loud noise. This blink reflex is stronger in

tioll by riglri-hnrlded, Fromadults when they are looking at slides that About Faces by

have negative emotional meaning, such as a ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ , y r i ~ j ~ ~ l989 by Terry L ~ , ~ -snarling dog, thm when they are looking at dau. dsed by y~nr i s s io l l of

slides that have positive emotional mem- Dofibleday,n diirisioil o f~a t z tn i h

ing, such as a slniiing baby. A sirnilar effect Dotrbledny Dell Publisiiilzg.

has been shown in 5-month-old infants.

They &how a stronger startle response to

noise when loobcing at m mgry fare than when looking at a happy face,

which suggests that they grasp the $angerous m m i t ~ gf the angry

face." %milarly, by 5 months of age, hfm ts can commmicate a di slikfor angry expressions by turning away from themt4jand crawling infants

tell us that they ur~derstmdhe meaning of a smile, a scowl, and a frown

by varying their willingmss to cross a "visual cliff."

The visual cliff is a plexiglass-covered table divided, into two halves.

One hatf c m look Iike a &op-of$, depending on how far below the surface

a pattern is placed, Infmts wilt nnl cross to the deep side if their m o tk r

stands there with a posed fearful expression, whereas the vast m4ority



do so if she poses a happy expsession, h g e r and, to a lesser extent, sad

exp~ss iomlso deter infants f r m crossir~g he cliff, which suggests that

they may inkryret all negative expressions as a ~ a r n i f i g . ~nfiints also

take cues from the facial expressions of people other than their mothers,One study examined trhe inhence of a stranger's facial expression on ihe

responses of a 12-month-dd infmt to a r e m o t e - o n r o beepifig robot

that emerged from a concealed, spot under a table and moved bward him

or her, stopping just out of reach. \rJh& ii7f;zmts e11dc.d to do was to iook

toward a womm seated nearby. If she was smiling, the infmt was much

more apt to approach m d touch the robot and even to smile and kiss it

than if she looked afraid. Indeed, whe2-t she looked afraid, in fa~ tse ~ ~ d e d

tm cry m d to apprctach their mothers acmss the room."l: The ability to readfacial expressions of emotion is clearIy present at a very early age, if not

from birth.

Although emotional expressions are readily identified, facial cues to

deception are more elusive &spite the fact that detecting deception often

requires reaclir~g ubtle emotiond expressims. In particdar, it may re-

quire pickhg up ""leakageff of hidden emotions that are being masked ar

detecthg the "falsity" of emotions that are being expressed. Zndeed, truth

tellers show more *"enjoyment smiles," whereas liars show more "mask-ing sl.niles.'TTfne dilference between these two types of smiles is ilius-

h.ated in Figure 2.8. Both the mouth m d the eyes are involved ina p n -

uine " e ~ ~ ~ o y m e ~ ~ trrrile," which lasts less than 5 seconds. The zygomatic

major muscle around the mouth pulls the lip corners upward, and the

obicularis oculi muscles around the eyes raise the cheek and crinkle the

skinaround lrhe eye, creating crow's-feet. The false "maskir~g milefVoes

not involve the eyes. Rather, it combhes the smi1;ing action around the

mouth, which is part of the enjoyfnent smile, with h-aces of the musclemovements from a negative emotion. Such a feigned smile may also last

longer than a genuine one does; it may stop mare abruptly; and it may be

crooked: stronger on one side of the face than the other.48

Although the face does provide clues to deceptior.~or lfie canny ob-

server, the fact is that liars are good at falsif.yjing their facial expressions-

The notion that the dishonest person shows "shiftli eyes'hnd a lot of ner-

vous smilini; is wror.~g.n fact, liars often show m m ye cor.~tactnd ess

smiling lhan truth ~ d l e r s . ~ ~onsequentl?~; hen untrahed people areasked to judge whethm indivjduais shown on videotape are lying or

telling the tmth, Lhey do not- do much better thar~ hance. 'The same is true

for a variety of trained professionals, such as customs officials, judges,

and psychiatrist^.^" Because the face is so easily controlled, lie detection is

often more accurate when peopk rely or1 ""leakier'kham~els f co

cation: the voice and the body." It seems that avid was overly pessimistic

when he lamented, ""Alas, how hard it is not: to betray a guilty conscienre



FIGURE 2.8 Syo~ztnnm us mile Il4t.I n ~ ~ dake smile Criglttkr, C . B. Ducltenrze (1990).

The mechanism of human facial expression fPhtes 31 , 32, pp. 157--158). attslated

by X. A. Cutillbertsorz, New l(or-k: Cambridtg~Utzi~lers-sityress. O ambridge Lllzizjersz'ty

Press, 199C1,Rqnnded z~t'dltpermissI;L)nof Carnhridg~Utziversity Press,

if1 C-he face!"" It is our voice or body that more often betrays us, and an

obvious facial cur? o deception like Pinocchio" nose is not to be fomd.

FadaE Cues to Fitness

I h e face provides a wide variety of cues to inklleckal, psychological,

and physicd fi t~~ess,few exmples of whieh are provided in the fouow-

ing sections. Although these exarnplcs show that the specific cues to fit-

ness are diverse, there are also some commonallties that may u~~derlie

one of the avergeneralization effects propo"d in.Chapter 3 to accomt for

the tendency to read psychological traits in faces, h articulaz; facial

asymmetry ar~d facial stmckre that deviates mrkedly from t-he popu-

lation average signify a lack of fitness in, the ixltellectual, psychological,and physical realms.

Although variations in inteltigence within the normal raxge cannot usu-

ally be dekct.cld, some forms of mental retarcdation are accompanied by a

distinctive facial appearance. People with Down syndrome, caused b y an



FIGURE 2.9 TIzefeta1nfcot~ol ytzdvome. S , K. Clnrren & D. W. Smz'tlz (2978). New

England Journal of Medicine, 2"3,1063-16267. ICopynSghiil1978, M~ ssacfiu se iif s cd-

ica1 Sociefy, R~yr-inted y pennissiotx of The New England Journal c tf Medicine.

extra chromosome, are readily recognized by their distinctive appear-

ance: round heads with sparse, fine hair; almond-shaped, slantjng eyes

with thick eyelids; a flat nose; a small mouth with fissured Ifps; and a

short neck. Cretinism, resulting from deficient thyroid secretion, is

marked by a large head with abundmt black, wiry hair; thick, dry skin; abroad, flat nose; and arge flabby ears. The failure of the cranium to attain

normal size owing to impaired brain development produces micro-

cephaly, or "small.-headedness." The heads of the mental.ly retarded indi-

viduais with this anomaiy not o d y are small but also are co~~e-sf-raped

wi& a receding chin and f o ~ h e a d .Mycbrocephaly is mother cause of

menhl retardation that is revealed in the face, The accumulationof cerc-

brosl>il?ra:ifluill in lrhc cranium causes brain damage and mlargeme~~tf

the cral?iwsn. Although th.e face remiljns relatively nomai, the protrudingskull is unm&stak;rble.

Numerous other ge~~eticnd cox-rgenitd ar~omalieshat affect intellec-

tual functioning also have facial. markers. Among these is fetal alcohol

syndrome (FAS), suffered by chjl,d.ren born to aicoholic mothers, As

shown in Figure 2.9, FA5 is characterized by a pattern of facial malfoma-

tions, inclwdhg a slnalf head circumfe~nce; Rat.tc.?nedmidlace, which is

also elongated,making the nose appear short; a sunken nasal bridge; hor-



izontally narrow eyes; epicanthic folds in the eyelids, resemblhg those in

mrmal individuals of the Mongolian race; a thin, reddish upper lip; a

smoothed ancd elongakd gmove betwem the nose and uppm lip; and a

small jaw.j3 Although these facial abnormalities are relatively minor, ex-pert physicians are able to identify FA5 children by their looks alone.54

These looks signify mild mental retardation, even when PAS children are

raised in stable, adoptive homes rather than by their alcoholic mothers.j5

The more minor inklkchnal impairmnts suffered by the lean7ing dis-

abed m y also have visible martifestations, although this is not univer-

sally true, In particular, learning-disabled, persons may manifest a m m -

ber of aberrations in facial structure that are called ""minor physical

anomalies." These anomalies, which are not typically noticed by t ~ n -h.ahed observers, include widely spaced, eyes, atypicd head circumfer-

ence, muit$le hair whorls, and ears that are asymmetrrical, soft. a r~d ti-

able, malfor~xed, nd low-seated ar that have athehecl.

The facial charactex.istic.cs hat mark severe intellecbal retardation, such

as Down syndrome, as well those that mark nninor inkllectual impair-

ments, such as minor physical mornalies, yield an appearmce that not

only deviates sipifjcantly from the populatjon average but also is charac-

terized by asymmetry.57

eychological Fitness

During the trial of Jeffrey D&mer, mtxrderer and cannibalistic sex af-

fendel; residents of Mdwaukee h e d up at 2 am. to secure one of the 2

courtroom seats reserved for ihe general puhlic. 'fheir loss of sleep was

not in the ser~rice f hearkg the gory details of Damer" crimes, which

were m p l y pmvided m TV and radio. Rather, these peopl" wmted tosee the face of the mar1 who could commit such atrocities. There is a long

history to the view that emotional fitness is manifested in appearmce- In

classical Gmek medical theories of the four humors (blood, yellow bile,

phlegm, and black Me), melmchoticswre held to suffer from a"texcess

af black bile, and they were described as bloated and swarthy, Other

pathologies at.t-ributed, o a predominance of black bile were hypochondri-

asiti, epilepsy, and hysteria, m d each was associated with specific physi-

cal signs.Altt-tough the theory of the four humors did not e n d u ~ ,he assumed

connectio~~ehtvee~"t sychopathology and appearance has persisted, and

aut-vvard manifestations of insanity can be seen in art thraughout: the cen-

turies, as shown in Figures 2.10 through 2.12. Images of insanity were as

much a part of the medicine of the day as of the art. A ~"tineteenth-century

psychiatry textbook stated that "every psychopathic state, like the physi-

ologic states of emotion, has its own peculiar facial expression and gen-



FIGURE 2.10 Girolanzu d i Bmvc;azzrto,St. Catherine of Siena Exorcising a Pos-

sessed %man Pfteerz th ce~zziry). Deziz~erArt Museum, Samuel H. ress Fou~zdaioa

collection,



FIGURE 2.32 Lot& Lsopold Boilly, Ixeunion ctf Thirty-fi~j-~reiverse Heads, n colored

Iz'thograp/t ront flze first half of llze ~zinetee~rtlzr8lz;rry. Clenzents Prilzt Cullecliorz,

Vale LI~ziversity,Harzley Cushirzg/JotznHay Wfzr'C~teyMedical Libr~ry ,

eral manner of movcment which, f-or the experienw& on superficial ob-

servation, makes a probable diagnosis po~sible."~arly medical texts

used arljsts9enditiorts of various pathologies. In the mid. 1 8 5 0 ~ ~he su-perh~te~~de~litf thg women% deparhrrenl: of a Briiish lunatic asylum a-

gued that textbook illustrations be replaced with photographs; later, in

the nineteenth century, William Noyes endeavwd to separate the ap-pearatre of specific pathologies .from the appearance of specific individu-

als by making cornposjte photographs though a series of ntultiple expo-

sllres of people with a particular palhology.

Photographs of trhe insane were scrutinized by Darwin in his scMinal

study of emotional expressions,md he c m e to view insanity as charac-krized by the foss of the ability to control the expression of emotion. Pho-

tographs were also used by Charcot, an inauential Fre~~chsyrrhiatrist of

the late l800s, who founded a photographic journal devoted to the docu-

menhtion of his findings concerning the visual appearance of the hyskri-

caf patient. Even in the t\n?e~~tiethentury, psychiatrists continued the tra-

diticzn of identifying differencesh acial, structure. between patients with

different mental illnesses, Kretschmer conducted an extensive study of



the facial and bodily proportions of rnental patients depicted in pho-

tographs al?d cowluded that those sufferhg h m chizophre17ia were

characterized by m egg-shaped face, a sharp and angular profile, m d a

long and narrow nose, recalling the DC facial type described. earlicr.Those suffering from depressio~~ad a broader, shietdlike facial form,

with softer outfines, m d a medium-sized nose with a straight or convex

bridge, recalling the BC facial type."

h modern psychiatry, the facial appearance of the patient plays only a

minor role in diagnosis.. Still, the ""table" of practichg psychiatrists, the

Diagnostic and StatisticalM a n 4 (DSM W ) ,gives it some attention. For

exmple, the criteria for d iaposhg schizophre~~ianclude the facial man-

ifestations of "affective flattening" and "prominent grixna~ing."~%ecentresearch indicates that schizophrenia has additional visible signs that are

not mentio~~edn DSM Ifr: C0mparc.d with mentally healthy individuals,

schizophrenics show not only less facial expression in general but also

fewer genuine smiles. The false smiles that schizophrenics more often

show are more crooked than gel~uil~enes." 'Schizophrenics also are

more ljkely to show a number of the mi.nor physical anomalies that were

earlicr noted as correlates of learning disabilities, such as widely spaced

eyes and malformed ears." These anomalies, together with the falsesmiles of scf-tizophrenics, make facial asylnmeky a marker of this disor-

der. Facial a sym e t ry is also a marker of rnilder psychological disorders,

such as the hyperactive behavior shown by those with fetal alcohol syn-

drome.

When we tell someone he doesn" look well, we are using facial cues todetect his state of health. Alttnough we may practice such diagnosis with-

out a clear awareness of what facial qualities we are responding to, some

medical experts have been quite specific concerning the meaning of cer-

tain facial signs. Hippocrate?;, comidered the "father of Western me&-

cine," described the drawn and pinched face of those about to die: a

""death mask" marked by a sharp nose, hollow eyes, shrmken temples,

cold arc3 co~~tractedars with their lobes t m e d outward, and yellow or

dark coloring with hard and tense skin. The traditional medicine ofChina, Japan, and other Far Eastern cultures also emphasizes the face,

with physiopomy servhg as a princ$al diagnostic tool. Eor exampie, as

shown in Figtrre 2.23, the area around the eye is believed to reflect the

state of the kidneys. If the kidneys arc ovemorked and cannot discharge

properly, liquid accumuiates undcr the eyes causing bags to form.

Modem research has pr0vidt.d evidence for a km e l of tmth to ancient

wisdom regarding the diagnostic potent-ial of the face, As shown insome

of the follmint; examples, the s i p s are as varied as posibbl"health prob-



FIGURE 2.13 The face in Orierztal diagnosis.

M, -trsfii (29781, Introduction to Oriental di-

agnosis.h n d o n : Su~zwlteelPztbEien ious.Goz~er

design by Peter Han-is.

lems. However, evolutimarp theorists have argued that facial asymmetrymay be a markw of general susceptibility to disease, be it disease caused

by lack clf rt?sjstance to infectious ilgenls or disease caused by genetic sus-

ceptibilitiies, Whether this is true remains to be determined. Most of the

evidence hearing on asymmetq ancf physical fih~ess ertains either to

lower animds or to nonf"acial,body asyinmetries in humans, and one re-

cent study examining the relationshlip between hurnm facial asymmetry

and self-reports of infectious ailments found inconsistent effect~.~%ow-

ever, other hcial makers of susceptibility to ciisease have been fcrtnrtd, al-Ihougfi. unlike m y m e t r y each is tied to a specific vulnerability.

One recent exmple it; an associatio~r etwee11 male pattern haId11c.s~

and heart disease, cvhich was widely reported in the press. Other facial

cues may also aid the idmCjfiratian of indhiduals who are prone to coro-

m ry artery disease. Such incihidualt;, cailed Type A, are hard driving,

hostile, and competitive. T%ey are the ones who honk theis hums impa-

tj,ntly in traffic jams or yell at the clerk who has misplaced their order.

Qpe R incfividuals, on ihe other hard, are more apt to "go with the flow.ff



These two types of people can be differentiated. by their characteristic f a -

cial expressions. Type A people are more Iikely than Type B people to

glare at an hter~riewer, owerixrg their brows, raising their upper eyelid,

and tensing their lower eyes. They are also more likely to have a look ofdisgust 0x1 their face.64

In keephg with the thesis that suppressed emotion may be a contribut-

ing factor to poor health, the lad of facial expressivity can also be diag-

mstic of ixnpending illness. The less facial expressivity people "how

while recounting e l ~ n t shat elicited strong sadness, fear, or anger, the

more somatic symptoms they mport on m inventory that i s a good, pre-

dictor of future health status. In particular, people who show low facial

expressivity when they are angry show symptoms diagnostic of futurearthritis, and those who show low facial expressivity when they are sad

show symptoms indicative of skin problems.h5

Facial st-ructure as well as expressivity may signal vulnerability to par-

tjcular diseases. The symptom of upper midriff pail%,belching, and con-

stipation arc? more likely to s i pa l an ulcer in a patient w:bo has a small

head, a narrow face, a narrow nose, and a long jaw (recallkg theK fa-

cial Qpe), and they are morcl iikly to signal a diseased gall bladdcr in a

patieznt wt-to has a large head, a broad face, a medium-width nose, and amedium-length jaw (recallkg the BC facial type). Just as those susceptible

to ulcer and gall bladder problems seem to have a distinctive appearance,

so do those susceptible to the polio virus. Folio patients are m m ikely

than trnaffected individuals to have large central, incisor teeth; long,

curved eyelashes; irregular pigmentation, clubbed ""back spots," and

s i p s of facial immahnri-ty such as eyicanthal eye folds, a Rat nose bridge,

and wide-set eyesSb6Why facial features such as these should co-occur

with greater susceptibility to a virus remahs an open question.h dditicln to facial cues that mark suslreptibiliv to one or more physi-

cal ailments, facial signs may also signal a ct~rrentlhess. At the extreme

i s the facial apyearmce that Hippocrates amjbuted to those about to die.

Minof heallh problems are also shorn in trhe face. Pale lips can indicate

anemia. Flushed cheeks may indicate a fever, Extreme pallor accompmies

low blood pressure. In y d o w fever m d jaundjce, the face has a yellow

cast. Hypertlsymidism, or goiter, is marked by bdging eyes. Hoodshot

eyes amd a runny nose suggest a cold, altergies,or even clrug use. A floridred nose also suggests a cold, or it may suggest alcoholism, Although&-

sclrvers may correctly dkcern same iHnesses from facial qualities such as

these, they may be mistaken about the particular illness hasmuch as one

facial quaGv can s ip a l various disorders.A man suffering from rosacea,

a disfiguring skindisease, reported the fobwing: " m e n I had a Rareup,

I avoided people, My nose kvou2d be cherry red. Coworkers kvou2d ask,



'Do you have a drinking Errors such as these may play a

role in one of the overger~eralization ffects discussed in Chapter 3.

Despite the possibility of error, there is evidence that laypersons c m ac-

curately detect people's physical health from their facial appearance.When college studer~tswere S h w i ~lack and white portrait photos of

18-year-old men and women and asked to rate their health on a scale that

ranged from poor to excellent, their judgments showed significant agree-

ment with an index of the health of those individuals del-lved from their

medical records.@Although this accuracy in detecting health was only a

small effect, one would expect accuracy to he consideraby greater when

judges are provided with m m ealistic facial information that hcludes

color and movement or when they are judging the health of older indi-viduals, who show more variation in physical fihess.

Summary

A person" face c m reveal age, sex, race, identity, emotion, and fitness. Al-

though learning c m pl"y a role in our ability to extract this adaptively

significant information fram faces, developmental, cross-cultural, andneurological research indicates that there also is a specific neural compo-

nent to this abifity. The strengthl uru:versaIity and adaptive value of the

tendency to read these valities in the face car1 provide a basis for Lhe

propensity to read psychological traits there as well. In particular, trait

impressions can derive from a tendency for our reactions to facial mark-

ers of adaptfvety sig~~ificantttribute.;, like age, to be owergeneralized to

faces that show some resemblance to these makers. Such avergeneralim-

tjon effects are consdered in the next clhaptel:



Tfjere's 110art

%find the rnindS construct ion in tl~eface.

-Shakespeare, Macbeth

326s quotation from Shakespeare suggests that myone c m read psycho-

logical characteristics in faces and that such face reading is accurate. In

the present chapter, I consider whetkr Shakespeare was right about tfie

accuracy of face rcrading. I also consider what "constructjonsof the mkd ff

people" facial qualities reveal as evidenced by lhks between particularfacial qualities and partiruiar pvyct7ological traits. Finally, I c m i d e r

bases for face readkg other than accuracy: the overgeneralization of seac-

tjons to facial qualities that convey the ad ap t iv e significant attributes

that were discussed in Chapter 2

M a tYou See IsWhat You Get

:It is possible that we read psychological traits infaces for the same rea-

son that we read sex or age or emotions. Just as a frowi~eveals anger,

which itis socially adaptive to detect, so does a particular facial structure

reveal an aggressive personality or other traits, This view, implicit

in Shakespeare" quotation, was espoused by phy&i"g""mists of the

eighteenth. and nineteenth centuries. l,avater, for example, said the fol-

lowing:

zebrowitz 1997 reading faces - cap 2

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