Post by paola on Apr 4, 2016 9:18:18 GMT
Moderator: Paola Hoffer
Week: Week 2
Subject: Assessing someone's trustworthiness based on physical appearance
Article: "Trust: Is It All in the Eyes?" by Alexandra Sifferlin, TIME
This week’s seminar will focus on how we interact with each other as individuals and in groups. As seen as a common theme in this week’s readings, such interaction tends to focus on bias, stereotypes and attitudes we have about people.
Specifically, I will be discussing about the aspect of trust and how our tendencies to trust someone are affected by certain factors. Numerous studies have shown that we tend to trust someone based on past experiences (i.e. the individual’s social reputation). However, when such information is absent (i.e. when you meet someone entirely new for the first time), how are our decisions to trust made?
In this case, we are left to deem someone trustworthy or untrustworthy based on the information we first learn about the individual when we first meet him or her. Such information includes the individual’s physical appearance. The article “Trust: Is It All in the Eyes?” by TIME explores this exact topic in great detail: healthland.time.com/2013/01/11/trust-is-it-all-in-the-eyes/. When we meet someone for the first time, we subconsciously assess his or her trustworthiness based on his or her eye color and distinct facial features.
(The following, interesting article by Scientific American endorses and builds upon this topic: www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-facial-bone-structure-has-a-big-influence-on-how-people-see-you/. Check out the link to find out more information.)
To come to this conclusion, Karel Kleisner of Charles University in Prague showed 238 subjects a series of 80 portrait photographs of individuals (both men and women) with either blue eyes or brown eyes. On a 1-to-10 scale, the subjects were asked how much they would trust the individual in the presented photograph.
The results clearly showed that brown-eyed individuals were deemed more trustworthy than blue-eyed individuals. Excluding the consideration of eye color, round-faced individuals who have large mouths, wide chins, and have eyebrows that are close together (facial features that are usually unique to brown-eyed individuals) are deemed more trustworthy than individuals who have longer faces, thinner facial features, and eyebrows that are situated farther apart. Evolutionary evidence sheds light on such a finding, as “brown-eyed people represent a biosocial adaptation that has been established for millions of years”, whereas blue eyes “were more of a novel physical characteristic many years ago”. So, during Kleisner's experiment, when presented a brown-eyed individual, the subjects perhaps felt a sense of security and thus deemed the brown-eyed individuals more trustworthy.
Based on this week’s readings and the provided article, could you say that you’ve been a victim of making such judgments? Would you agree that you deem people more trustworthy than others based on their physical appearances? If so, are you consciously aware of it?
Week: Week 2
Subject: Assessing someone's trustworthiness based on physical appearance
Article: "Trust: Is It All in the Eyes?" by Alexandra Sifferlin, TIME
This week’s seminar will focus on how we interact with each other as individuals and in groups. As seen as a common theme in this week’s readings, such interaction tends to focus on bias, stereotypes and attitudes we have about people.
Specifically, I will be discussing about the aspect of trust and how our tendencies to trust someone are affected by certain factors. Numerous studies have shown that we tend to trust someone based on past experiences (i.e. the individual’s social reputation). However, when such information is absent (i.e. when you meet someone entirely new for the first time), how are our decisions to trust made?
In this case, we are left to deem someone trustworthy or untrustworthy based on the information we first learn about the individual when we first meet him or her. Such information includes the individual’s physical appearance. The article “Trust: Is It All in the Eyes?” by TIME explores this exact topic in great detail: healthland.time.com/2013/01/11/trust-is-it-all-in-the-eyes/. When we meet someone for the first time, we subconsciously assess his or her trustworthiness based on his or her eye color and distinct facial features.
(The following, interesting article by Scientific American endorses and builds upon this topic: www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-facial-bone-structure-has-a-big-influence-on-how-people-see-you/. Check out the link to find out more information.)
To come to this conclusion, Karel Kleisner of Charles University in Prague showed 238 subjects a series of 80 portrait photographs of individuals (both men and women) with either blue eyes or brown eyes. On a 1-to-10 scale, the subjects were asked how much they would trust the individual in the presented photograph.
The results clearly showed that brown-eyed individuals were deemed more trustworthy than blue-eyed individuals. Excluding the consideration of eye color, round-faced individuals who have large mouths, wide chins, and have eyebrows that are close together (facial features that are usually unique to brown-eyed individuals) are deemed more trustworthy than individuals who have longer faces, thinner facial features, and eyebrows that are situated farther apart. Evolutionary evidence sheds light on such a finding, as “brown-eyed people represent a biosocial adaptation that has been established for millions of years”, whereas blue eyes “were more of a novel physical characteristic many years ago”. So, during Kleisner's experiment, when presented a brown-eyed individual, the subjects perhaps felt a sense of security and thus deemed the brown-eyed individuals more trustworthy.
Based on this week’s readings and the provided article, could you say that you’ve been a victim of making such judgments? Would you agree that you deem people more trustworthy than others based on their physical appearances? If so, are you consciously aware of it?
