Wired to be Weird

What's in a face?


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We chat about the complex ways we perceive faces, how it can go wrong, and how this system plays a crucial role in how you gravitate towards one political candidate over another.  Can we predict your political party based purely on the way you perceive faces?  Can you predict a company's profitability based on the face of its CEO alone?

 

Composite Face Illusion www.static1.squarespace.com/static/568c08e50ab377164e9ca233/t/56f303f060b5e90832bf86e9/1458766986855/?format=300w.  Retrieved from: www.flickr.com/photos/pehem/8800295264

Mooney Faces www.static1.squarespace.com/static/568c08e50ab377164e9ca233/t/56f304a31330ba9e3544ee0c/1458767042956/?format=750w.  Source reference above images.

The Gardener by Giuseppe Arcimboldo www.static1.squarespace.com/static/568c08e50ab377164e9ca233/t/56f304d11330ba9e3544ef28/1458767303739/?format=500w - Creative Commons, Wikipedia

Literature Referenced:

1.  Rossion B. Understanding face perception by means of human electrophysiology. Trends Cogn Sci. 2014 Jun;18(6):310-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.02.013. Epub 2014 Apr 1. Review. PubMed PMID: 24703600.

2.  Rossion B. Understanding face perception by means of prosopagnosia and neuroimaging. Front Biosci (Elite Ed). 2014 Jun 1;6:258-307. Review. PubMed PMID: 24896206.

3.  Todorov A, Mandisodza AN, Goren A, Hall CC. Inferences of competence from faces predict election outcomes. Science. 2005 Jun 10;308(5728):1623-6. PubMed PMID: 15947187.

4.  Rule NO, Ambady N. The face of success: inferences from chief executive officers' appearance predict company profits. Psychol Sci. 2008 Feb;19(2):109-11. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02054.x. PubMed PMID: 18271856.

5.  Rule NO, Ambady N, Adams RB Jr, Ozono H, Nakashima S, Yoshikawa S, Watabe M. Polling the face: prediction and consensus across cultures. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2010 Jan;98(1):1-15. doi: 10.1037/a0017673. PubMed PMID: 20053027.

6.  Rule NO, Ambady N. Democrats and republicans can be differentiated from their faces. PLoS One. 2010 Jan 18;5(1):e8733. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0008733. PubMed PMID: 20090906; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2807452.

7.  Hu SF, Chang CK, Chen YC, Chien SH. Taiwanese Political Parties can be Categorized by Face, by Those Who Reported Making Face-To-Trait Inferences. Front Psychol. 2016 Jan 11;6:1931. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01931. eCollection 2015. PubMed PMID: 26793130; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4707650.

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Wired to be WeirdBy Ian McLaughlin & Bo Allen

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