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First Impressions From Faces

Leslie A. Zebrowitz [email protected]View all authors and affiliations

Volume 26, Issue 3

https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721416683996

Abstract
Recommended Reading
References

Abstract

Although cultural wisdom warns us not to judge a book by its cover, we seem unable to inhibit this tendency even though it can lead to inaccurate impressions of people’s psychological traits and has significant social consequences. One explanation for this paradox is that first impressions from faces reflect overgeneralizations of adaptive impressions of categories of people with structurally similar faces (including babies, familiar or unfamiliar people, evolutionarily unfit people, and people expressing a variety of emotions). Research testing these overgeneralization hypotheses has elucidated why we form first impressions from faces, what impressions we form, and what cues influence these impressions. This article focuses on commonalities in impressions across diverse perceivers, with additional brief attention given to individual differences in impressions and impression accuracy.

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Recommended Reading

Carney D. R., Colvin C. R., Hall J. A. (2007). A thin-slice perspective on the accuracy of first impressions. Journal of Personality, 41, 1054–1072. An article that discusses the accuracy of first impressions given multimodal dynamic information that varies in duration.

Rule N. O., Ambady N., Adams R. B. Jr., Ozono H., Nakashima S., Yoshikawa S., Watabe M. (2010). Polling the face: Prediction and consensus across cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 1–15. A study illustrating original research about trait impressions from faces

Secord P. F., Dukes W. F., Bevan W. (1954). (See References). A historical classic—one of the first empirical articles on trait impressions from faces.

Zebrowitz L. A. (1997). Reading faces: Window to the soul? Boulder, CO: Westview Press. A user-friendly and abundantly illustrated account of first impressions from faces that provides more historical background and more elaboration on the baby-face and unfit-face overgeneralization effects than the current article.

Zebrowitz L. A., Montepare J. M. (2014). Faces and first impressions. In Bargh J., Borgida G. (Eds.), Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology: Vol. 1. Attitudes and social cognition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. A relatively comprehensive review for readers who wish to expand their knowledge of first impressions from faces, with more attention to social and psychological consequences than the current article.

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