We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
What's in a picture? The impact of face-ism on trait attribution.
- Authors
Schwarz, Norbert; Kurz, Eva
- Abstract
Previous research indicated a 'face-ism' bias in media depictions of men and women: The media tend to represent men with their fares, whereas women's depictions include larger parts of their bodies, rendering their faces less prominent. To explore the impact of facial prominence on impression formation, male and female subjects received either full-body or portrait-style photographs, made from the same negatives, of male and female stimulus persons of different likeability. Male and female subjects evaluated all stimulus persons as more competent (intelligent, assertive, ambitious, etc.) if presented with a high (portrait) rather than a low (full-body photograph) degree of facial prominence. This main effect official prominence was not qualified by interaction effects with any of the other variables. Thus, the media face-ism bias is likely to contribute to a perception of men as more competent than women. In addition, female but not male subjects also evaluated stimulus persons as more expressive and likeable under conditions of high facial prominence, reflecting a global positive effect official prominence.
- Subjects
FACE; FACIAL expression; PORTRAITS; BIOGRAPHIES; MASS media; PHOTOGRAPHS; SOCIAL perception
- Publication
European Journal of Social Psychology, 1989, Vol 19, Issue 4, p311
- ISSN
0046-2772
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/ejsp.2420190405