The facial expressions of this year’s presidential candidates could play an important role in helping voters make choices, according to an Ohio State University researcher.
The study shows that characteristics of a person’s face affect how we draw conclusions about a person.
Aleix Martinez, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Ohio State University College of Engineering, found that the vertical distance between the eyes, nose and mouth of a person is correlated with the perception of expressions of anger and sadness - even if that person is not actually displaying any emotion at all. Researchers previously believed that human emotions were shown by underlying facial muscle motion, he said, not by simply the position of the facial features.
“We tend to overgeneralize,” Martinez explained, “and perceive sadness or anger even when there is none. That is very dangerous not only for politics but also for other instances, such as juries, where faces play very important roles in our perceptions.”
Martinez said his research showed that the closer the vertical distance is between the center of a person’s eyes and the center of that person’s mouth, the more likely it is that the individual will be perceived as being angry - even if they are not. And as that same vertical distance grows, the more likely it is that the person appears to be sad.
“Have you heard someone say, “What a long face you have today,’ when they think you are sad? That’s the perception, but facial features might make us overgeneralize and come to that conclusion even if it is not true,” he said.
He said another example of such overgeneralization is that people with younger-looking faces are often perceived as being less competent, when in fact research shows that those people are often more competent than average - not because they are smarter or more capable but because they have to overcompensate for their appearance.
“I think it’s truly important in a democratic society or in the justice system to understand why we perceive the things we do, because in many instances we don’t know why we are associating certain expressions with certain people,” he says. “If we understand the overgeneralization, we should be able to put that aside and consider other factors that come into play.”
The results of Martinez’s research have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Vision.
Aleix Martinez
