We may judge people's bodies based mainly on perceived trustworthiness and dominance

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-09-07 09:01

Australia; NSW

Iris_-_right_eye_of_a_girl By Laitr Keiows - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Aussie and UK scientists say our first impressions of people's bodies appear to be based on our perception of their trustworthiness and dominance. These two factors are also thought to be the basis of our rapid judgement of people's faces, they say. The team asked 237 people to judge images of people's bodies with their faces blurred out, based on a set of 14 traits used in previous research. Analysing the results, they found trustworthiness and dominance were the most important factors influencing people's first impressions of the subjects.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

The Valence-Dominance Model Applies to Body Perception

First impressions of a person, including social judgements, are often based on appearance. The valence-dominance model of face perception posits that social judgements of faces fall along two dimensions: trustworthiness (valence) and dominance. The current study aimed to establish whether body perception would follow the same dimensions as face perception. Raters (N = 237) judged stimuli, black and white photographs showing bodies dressed in grey clothing, standing in left profile. Results suggest that social perceptions of bodies can be summarised using the valence-dominance model. These two factors could represent universal perceptions we have about people.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live at some point after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Macquarie University

Funder: The authors received no funding for this study.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.