People form face impressions based on a conceptual understanding of personality structure that they have come to learn from their regional environment

Personality across world regions predicts variability in the structure of face impressions. DongWon Oh, Jared D. Martin, and Jonathan B. Freeman. Psychological Science, accepted. Dec 2021. https://files.cargocollective.com/c860495/OhMartinFreeman_PersonalityAcross.pdf

Abstract: Research on face impressions has often focused on a fixed and universal architecture, treating  regional variability as noise. Here, we demonstrate a crucial yet neglected role of cultural  learning processes in forming face impressions. In Study 1, we found that variability in the  structure of perceivers’ face impressions across 42 world regions (n=287,178) could be  explained by variability in the actual personality structure of people living in those regions. In  Study 2, data from 232 world regions (n=307,136) revealed that perceivers use the actual  personality structure learned from their local environment to form lay beliefs about personality,  which in turn scaffold the structure of perceivers’ face impressions. Together, these results  suggest that people form face impressions based on a conceptual understanding of personality  structure that they have come to learn from their regional environment. The findings call for greater attention on the regional and cultural specificity of face impressions.

Keywords: person perception, face processing, social cognition, semantic memory, cultural psychology