Effects of observers' characteristics on impression formation on face

Kuangzhe Xu, Toshihiko Matsuka

Abstract: The vast majority of previous research on facial impressions dealt with how individual features (e.g. shapes of eyes) and/or their configurations affect impression formation on face. These research implicitly assume that the effects are uniformly applicable to many if not all observers. But, we believe the validity of this assumption questionable. For example, a shy person, who is hesitant to look at other individuals eyes, and an outgoing person, who constantly looks at others eyes, may form different impressions to a particular face whose eyes are very characteristic, simply because those two individuals look at different areas of the face. In the present research we hypothesized that some features of observers also affect impression formation. In order to examine our hypothesis, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, we examined how observers personalities and observational behaviors, recorded by an eye-tracking device, affected formed impression. Our data were analyzed with hierarchical Bayesian models. The result showed that both the observers personality and observational behaviors influences formed impressions. In order to distinguish the effects of observers personalities and observational behaviors, we induced participants to look at particular areas of faces in Experiment 2. The results indicated that observers personalities influence observational behaviors, which in turn influence impression formation on face.