First Impressions by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2008-11-21T21:10:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Social Categorization

and Beyond

How Facial Features

Impact Social Judgment

KEITH B. MADDOX

KRISTIN N. DUKES

The human face conveys information to help determine a person's identity, category membership, personality, emotional or mood state, what he or she might be thinking about or looking at, and the veracity of his or her verbal behavior (Bodenhausen & Macrae, 2006; Mason, Cloutier, & Macrae, 2006). The face tells us so much about others that is potentially relevant to social thought and action. Yet, aside from a few notable research programs, this important area of research remains understudied in social psychology (Bodenhausen & Macrae, 2006; Zebrowitz, 2006). In contrast, and perhaps understandably, researchers have focused on more explicit aspects of behavior and their implications for social judgment and interaction; particularly in the realm of social categorization and its consequences for stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. In this chapter, we argue that the disproportionate attention given to behavior from social psychological researchers has resulted in theories that, while extremely useful, are missing important pieces of the social perception puzzle. A case in point: many models of social perception recognize that perceivers are sensitive to within-group variability in behavior and that this sensitivity has implications for social categorization and its consequences. However, in their focus on behavior, these models neglect perceivers' sensitivity to within-group variation in facial appearance and the potential implications of this sensitivity for intergroup judgment and behavior.

That trend is rapidly changing. This chapter focuses on a particular piece of that puzzle: stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination guided by facial cues. In particular, we seek to outline several recent investigations that must give pause to those who endorse traditional models of category representation and judgment. On balance, these studies reveal that within-category variation in facial features provides more information in the service of social judgment than previous theories and investigations have assumed. That is, contrary to the assumptions and assertions of many traditional models, perceivers are sensitive to withincategory variation in features of the face in the service of social categorization and the activation of associated stereotypes and prejudices. Individuals who more closely resemble category prototypes are more likely to be viewed through the lens of category stereotypes. In this chapter, we review several recent theoretical accounts based on evidence suggesting that this process may occur through two routes: indirectly through categorization processes or directly through processes independent of categorization.

FACIAL FEATURES AND IMPRESSION FORMATION: EXPLORING A THEORETICAL LACUNA

There are multiple social psychological models that seek to describe the implications of a particular mental representation for judgments about social targets. Many of these (e.g., Bodenhausen & Macrae, 1998; Kunda & Thagard, 1996) have their bases in two extremely influential models of impression formation. These two models and their implications for the role of facial features in social perception are described below.

Brewer's Dual-Process Model

The dual-process model of impression formation (Brewer, 1988; Brewer & Feinstein, 1999) states that social targets are initially classified through an identification process. This is a preconscious categorization of the target "along well-established stimulus dimensions such as gender, age, and skin color" (Brewer, 1988, p.

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