Recognising faces but not traits: Accurate personality judgment from faces is unrelated to superior face memory

Liam Paul Satchel; Josh P. Davis; Eglantine Julle-Daniere; Nina Tupper; Paul Marshman

doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2019.02.002

Recognising faces but not traits: Accurate personality judgment from faces is unrelated to superior face memory

Liam Paul Satchel^*, Josh P. Davis, Eglantine Julle-Daniere, Nina Tupper, Paul Marshman

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

It is suggested that accurate personality judgments of faces are driven by a morphological ‘kernel of truth’ from face shape. We hypothesised that this relationship could lead to those with better face identification ability being better at personality judgments. We investigated the relationship between face memory, face matching, Big Five personality traits, and accuracy in recognising Big Five personality traits from 50 photographs of unknown faces. In our sample (n = 792) there was overall good (but varying) face memory and personality judgment accuracy. However, there was convincing evidence that these two skills do not correlate (all r < 0.06). We also replicate the known relationship between extraversion and face memory ability in the largest sample to date.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	49-58
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Research in Personality
Volume	79
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2019.02.002
Publication status	Published - Apr 2019

Keywords

Personality judgment
Kernel of truth
Face memory
Face perception
FACIAL STRUCTURE PREDICTS
TO-HEIGHT RATIO
INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
RECOGNITION ABILITY
ZERO ACQUAINTANCE
SEX-DIFFERENCES
GOOD JUDGE
WIDTH
SELF
PEOPLE

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jrp.2019.02.002

Cite this

@article{e01518b9d96f41cfbe5b4ce49c8ab771,

title = "Recognising faces but not traits: Accurate personality judgment from faces is unrelated to superior face memory",

abstract = "It is suggested that accurate personality judgments of faces are driven by a morphological {\textquoteleft}kernel of truth{\textquoteright} from face shape. We hypothesised that this relationship could lead to those with better face identification ability being better at personality judgments. We investigated the relationship between face memory, face matching, Big Five personality traits, and accuracy in recognising Big Five personality traits from 50 photographs of unknown faces. In our sample (n = 792) there was overall good (but varying) face memory and personality judgment accuracy. However, there was convincing evidence that these two skills do not correlate (all r < 0.06). We also replicate the known relationship between extraversion and face memory ability in the largest sample to date.",

keywords = "Personality judgment, Kernel of truth, Face memory, Face perception, FACIAL STRUCTURE PREDICTS, TO-HEIGHT RATIO, INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES, RECOGNITION ABILITY, ZERO ACQUAINTANCE, SEX-DIFFERENCES, GOOD JUDGE, WIDTH, SELF, PEOPLE",

author = "Satchel, {Liam Paul} and Davis, {Josh P.} and Eglantine Julle-Daniere and Nina Tupper and Paul Marshman",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019",

year = "2019",

month = apr,

doi = "10.1016/j.jrp.2019.02.002",

language = "English",

volume = "79",

pages = "49--58",

journal = "Journal of Research in Personality",

issn = "0092-6566",

publisher = "Elsevier Science",

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T1 - Recognising faces but not traits

T2 - Accurate personality judgment from faces is unrelated to superior face memory

AU - Satchel, Liam Paul

AU - Davis, Josh P.

AU - Julle-Daniere, Eglantine

AU - Tupper, Nina

AU - Marshman, Paul

PY - 2019/4

Y1 - 2019/4

N2 - It is suggested that accurate personality judgments of faces are driven by a morphological ‘kernel of truth’ from face shape. We hypothesised that this relationship could lead to those with better face identification ability being better at personality judgments. We investigated the relationship between face memory, face matching, Big Five personality traits, and accuracy in recognising Big Five personality traits from 50 photographs of unknown faces. In our sample (n = 792) there was overall good (but varying) face memory and personality judgment accuracy. However, there was convincing evidence that these two skills do not correlate (all r < 0.06). We also replicate the known relationship between extraversion and face memory ability in the largest sample to date.

AB - It is suggested that accurate personality judgments of faces are driven by a morphological ‘kernel of truth’ from face shape. We hypothesised that this relationship could lead to those with better face identification ability being better at personality judgments. We investigated the relationship between face memory, face matching, Big Five personality traits, and accuracy in recognising Big Five personality traits from 50 photographs of unknown faces. In our sample (n = 792) there was overall good (but varying) face memory and personality judgment accuracy. However, there was convincing evidence that these two skills do not correlate (all r < 0.06). We also replicate the known relationship between extraversion and face memory ability in the largest sample to date.

KW - Personality judgment

KW - Kernel of truth

KW - Face memory

KW - Face perception

KW - FACIAL STRUCTURE PREDICTS

KW - TO-HEIGHT RATIO

KW - INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES

KW - RECOGNITION ABILITY

KW - ZERO ACQUAINTANCE

KW - SEX-DIFFERENCES

KW - GOOD JUDGE

KW - WIDTH

KW - SELF

KW - PEOPLE

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DO - 10.1016/j.jrp.2019.02.002

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