The dolichofacial individual was associated with security agents as the most prone to commit crimes, was seen as less trustworthy

Does the facial pattern give individuals a profile of a crime suspect? Nathalia de Lima SANTOS et al. Biosci. J., Uberlândia, v. 35, n. 5, p. 1614-1621, Sep./Oct. 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.14393/BJ-v35n5a2019-46326

ABSTRACT: To evaluate the influence of mesofacial, brachyfacial and dolichofacial facial patterns on giving an individual the profile of a crime suspect in the eyes of public security agents. This study had a crosssectional design, conducted with public security agents of both sexes (n=100), where images of facial composites (police sketches) of individuals with different facial patterns (mesofacial, brachyfacial and dolichofacial) were used. With these images in hand, a questionnaire was created, divided into three parts: the first in which all the images were presented together, allowing comparison among them; the second, in which each image was evaluated separately followed by questions and the third that consisted on a visual analog scale that presented a bar with marks going from 0 to 100, where 0 represented the untrustworthy individual, 50 the individual who could be trusted, and 100 a very trustworthy individual. When all the data had been obtained statistical analyses were performed using the Chi-square and Friedman tests. The level of significance adopted was 5% (α=0.05). The dolichofacial individual was associated with security agents as the most prone to commit crimes and became more insecure and distrustful when compared to the mesofacial and brachyfacial individuals (p <0.001). The dolichofacial profile had a negative influence on the judgment of security agents who attributed to it, a character suspected of a crime and a low level of trustworthiness.

KEYWORDS: Face. Social perception. Judgment. Crime.