Social judgments from faces and bodies.

Despite the primacy of the face in social perception research, people often base their impressions on whole persons (i.e., faces and bodies). Yet, perceptions of whole persons remain critically underresearched. We address this knowledge gap by testing the relative contributions of faces and bodies to various fundamental social judgments. Results show that faces and bodies contribute different amounts to particular social judgments on orthogonal axes of social perception: Bodies primarily influence status and ability judgments, whereas faces primarily influence warmth-related evaluations. One possible reason for this may be differences in signal that bodies and faces provide for judgments along these two axes. To test this, we extended our investigation to social judgment accuracy, given that signal is a precondition to accuracy. Focusing on one kind of status/ability judgment-impressions of social class standing-we found that perceivers can discern individuals' social class standing from faces, bodies, and whole persons. Conditions that included bodies returned higher accuracy, indicating that bodies may contain more signal to individuals' social class than faces do. Within bodies, shape cued social class more than details of individuals' clothing. Altogether, these findings highlight the importance of the body for fully understanding processes and outcomes in person perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Stereotypes bias social class perception from faces: The roles of race, gender, affect, and attractiveness.

People quickly form consequential impressions of others' social class standing from nonverbal cues, including facial appearance. Extant research shows that perceivers judge faces that appear more positive, attractive, and healthy as higher-class, in line with stereotypes associating high class standing with happiness, attractiveness, and better wellbeing (which bear a kernel of truth). A wealth of research, moreover, demonstrates strong stereotypical associations between social class and both race and gender. The current work bridged these areas of inquiry to explore (1) intersectional biases in social class impressions from faces and (2) how associations between social class and attractiveness/health and affect can be used to shift social class impressions. Our studies found evidence of race and gender stereotypes impacting British perceivers' social class judgements, with Black (vs. White and Asian) and female (vs. male) faces judged as lower in class. Furthermore, manipulating faces' emotion expression shifted judgements of their social class, with variations in magnitude by faces' race, such that emotion expressions shifted judgements of Black faces more than White faces. Finally, manipulating faces' complexion to appear healthier/more attractive shifted social class judgements, with the magnitude of this varying by faces' and perceivers' race, suggesting a role of perceptual expertise. These findings demonstrate that stereotypes bias social class impressions and can be used to manipulate them.

Social class perception is driven by stereotype-related facial features.

Social class is a powerful hierarchy that determines many privileges and disadvantages. People form impressions of others' social class (like other important social attributes) from facial appearance, and these impressions correlate with stereotype judgments. However, what drives these related subjective judgments remains unknown. That is, what makes someone look like they are of higher or lower social class standing (e.g., rich or poor), and how does this relate to harmful or advantageous stereotypes? We addressed these questions using a perception-based data-driven method to model the specific three-dimensional facial features that drive social class judgments and compared them to those of stereotype-related judgments (competence, warmth, dominance, and trustworthiness), based on White Western culture participants and face stimuli. Using a complementary data-reduction analysis and machine learning approach, we show that social class judgments are driven by a unique constellation of facial features that reflect multiple embedded stereotypes: poor-looking (vs. rich-looking) faces are wider, shorter, and flatter with downturned mouths and darker, cooler complexions, mirroring features of incompetent, cold, and untrustworthy-looking (vs. competent, warm, and trustworthy-looking) faces. Our results reveal the specific facial features that underlie the connection between impressions of social class and stereotype-related social traits, with implications for central social perception theories, including understanding the causal links between stereotype knowledge and social class judgments. We anticipate that our results will inform future interventions designed to interrupt biased perception and social inequalities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Beyond categories: Perceiving sexual attraction from faces.

Although people can categorize others' sexual orientation (e.g., gay/lesbian vs. straight) from their facial appearance, not everyone defines their sexual orientation categorically. Indeed, many individuals within the same sexual orientation category experience different degrees of own- and other-gender attraction. Moving beyond sexual orientation categories, we found that perceivers' judgments of individuals' sexual attraction correlated with those individuals' self-reported degrees of attraction to women and men. Similar to past work on sexual orientation categories, facial affect cued sexual attraction in men whereas gender typicality cued sexual attraction in women. Moreover, asking participants to categorize the targets as 'not straight' versus 'straight' revealed a linear pattern distinct from the discrete category thresholds typical of other social groups (e.g., race). Facial appearance thus reveals nuances in sexual attraction that support sexual orientation categorizations. These findings refine understanding of social categorization more broadly.

Parsing the Mechanisms Underlying Ingroup Facial Resemblance.

People prefer to form relationships with people like themselves-a tendency that extends even to facial appearance, resulting in groups whose members look alike. Here, we investigated the mechanisms underlying homophilic resemblance using facial photos of fraternity/sorority members from two time points: before joining the group and after belonging to the group for three years. Analyses of both subjective trait impressions and objective face-shape measurements revealed that not only did group members look alike, they resembled one another even before joining the group. Moreover, photos of potential fraternity recruits revealed that facial appearance predicted both the group that individuals sought to join and the group's likelihood of accepting them. Individuals, therefore, seek to join groups consisting of people who look like them, and the groups preferentially accept new members who resemble those already in the group. This bidirectional preference for homophily likely perpetuates intragroup homogeneity, suggesting potential implications beyond appearance.

Perceiving acculturation from neutral and emotional faces.

Facial expressions of emotion convey more than just emotional experience. Indeed, they can signal a person's social group memberships. For instance, extant research shows that nonverbal accents in emotion expression can reveal one's cultural affiliation (Marsh, Elfenbein, & Ambady, 2003). That work tested distinctions only between people belonging to one of two cultural categories, however (Japanese vs. Japanese Americans). What of people who identify with more than one culture? Here we tested whether nonverbal accents might signal not only cultural identification but also the degree of cultural identification (i.e., acculturation). Using neutral, happy, and angry photos of East Asian individuals varying in acculturation to Canada, we found that both Canadian and East Asian perceivers could accurately detect the targets' level of acculturation. Although perceivers used hairstyle cues when available, once we removed hair, accuracy was greatest for happy expressions-supporting the idea that nonverbal accents convey cultural identification. Finally, the intensity of targets' happiness related to both their self-reported and perceived acculturation, helping to explain perceivers' accuracy and aligning with research on cultural display rules and ideal affect. Thus, nonverbal accents appear to communicate cultural identification not only categorically, as previous work has shown, but also continuously. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion and Gender Typicality Cue Sexual Orientation Differently in Women and Men.

Heterosexual individuals tend to look and act more typical for their gender compared to gay and lesbian individuals, and people use this information to infer sexual orientation. Consistent with stereotypes associating happy expressions with femininity, previous work found that gay men displayed more happiness than straight men-a difference that perceivers used, independent of gender typicality, to judge sexual orientation. Here, we extended this to judgments of women's sexual orientation. Like the gender-inversion stereotypes applied to men, participants perceived women's faces manipulated to look angry as more likely to be lesbians; however, emotional expressions largely did not distinguish the faces of actual lesbian and straight women. Compared to men's faces, women's faces varied less in their emotional expression (appearing invariably positive) but varied more in gender typicality. These differences align with gender role expectations requiring the expression of positive emotion by women and prohibiting the expression of femininity by men. More important, greater variance within gender typicality and emotion facilitates their respective utility for distinguishing sexual orientation from facial appearance. These findings thus provide the first evidence for contrasting cues to women's and men's sexual orientation and suggest that gender norms may uniquely shape how men and women reveal their sexual orientation.

Negative emotion and perceived social class.

People use stereotypes about the benefits of wealth and success to infer that rich people look happier than poor people. For instance, perceivers categorize smiling faces as rich more often than they categorize neutral faces as rich. Moreover, richer people's neutral faces in fact display more positive affect than poorer people's neutral faces. Applying these emotion stereotypes thus enables perceivers to accurately classify targets' social class from their neutral faces. Extant research has left unexplained whether perceivers use broad differences in valence or specific emotions when judging others' social class, however. We tested this here by examining how 4 negatively valenced emotions influence perceptions of social class: sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. Whereas sadness and anger relate to both stereotypes and actual correlates of lower social class (e.g., depression and hostility, respectively), no established links suggest that poorer people should express or experience greater disgust or fear. Consistent with stereotypes of lower-class people, targets expressing sadness and anger were categorized as poor or working class more often than neutral targets were. Targets expressing disgust and fear also looked lower class than neutral targets did, however. These combined findings therefore suggest that perceivers rely on valence differences rather than specific emotions to judge social class, indicating that the broad perception of low social class as a negative state (and high social class as a positive state) may drive face-based impressions of social class. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The visibility of social class from facial cues.

Social class meaningfully impacts individuals' life outcomes and daily interactions, and the mere perception of one's socioeconomic standing can have significant ramifications. To better understand how people infer others' social class, we therefore tested the legibility of class (operationalized as monetary income) from facial images, finding across 4 participant samples and 2 stimulus sets that perceivers categorized the faces of rich and poor targets significantly better than chance. Further investigation showed that perceivers categorize social class using minimal facial cues and employ a variety of stereotype-related impressions to make their judgments. Of these, attractiveness accurately cued higher social class in self-selected dating profile photos. However, only the stereotype that well-being positively relates to wealth served as a valid cue in neutral faces. Indeed, neutrally posed rich targets displayed more positive affect relative to poor targets and perceivers used this affective information to categorize their social class. Impressions of social class from these facial cues also influenced participants' evaluations of the targets' employability, demonstrating that face-based perceptions of social class may have important downstream consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record

Subtle perceptions of male sexual orientation influence occupational opportunities.

Theories linking the literatures on stereotyping and human resource management have proposed that individuals may enjoy greater success obtaining jobs congruent with stereotypes about their social categories or traits. Here, we explored such effects for a detectable, but not obvious, social group distinction: male sexual orientation. Bridging previous work on prejudice and occupational success with that on social perception, we found that perceivers rated gay and straight men as more suited to professions consistent with stereotypes about their groups (nurses, pediatricians, and English teachers vs. engineers, managers, surgeons, and math teachers) from mere photos of their faces. Notably, distinct evaluations of the gay and straight men emerged based on perceptions of their faces with no explicit indication of sexual orientation. Neither perceivers' expertise with hiring decisions nor diagnostic information about the targets eliminated these biases, but encouraging fair decisions did contribute to partly ameliorating the differences. Mediation analysis further showed that perceptions of the targets' sexual orientations and facial affect accounted for these effects. Individuals may therefore infer characteristics about individuals' group memberships from their faces and use this information in a way that meaningfully influences evaluations of their suitability for particular jobs. (PsycINFO Database Record

Microbiota of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) rearing systems at pre- and posthatch stages and the effect of different treatments.

AIMS: To study the effect of ova disinfection, antibiotic and microbial treatments on the dominant cultivable cod rearing microbiota at pre- and posthatch stages, determining some virulence-related phenotypic traits among bacterial isolates and their relation to larval survival. METHODS AND RESULTS: Sampling of rearing systems (rearing water, ova, larvae, feeds and supplement) for analysis of cultivable microbiota took place at early stages in 2004 and 2005. Cultivation, phenotypic and genotypic (16S rRNA gene) analyses were performed. The production of putative virulence factors (PVFs), including haemolysin, siderophores and quorum-sensing signals, by bacterial isolates was investigated and related to larval survival. The study was performed during two spawning seasons, evaluating current hatchery practices (ova disinfection and antibiotic treatment of unhealthy larvae) and specific putative probiotics applied to ova and larvae or rotifers. A diversified microbiota (75 operational taxonomic units, OTUs) was observed in cod rearing systems influenced by the feeds and treatments, with prevailing γ-Proteobacteria prior to hatching towards a multiphyla microbiota posthatch. Phenotypic tests demonstrated the heterogeneity within some OTUs. Multivariate analysis of survival data in larval silos and the corresponding larval microbiota was used to divide the genotypic groups into beneficial/harmless and detrimental/opportunistic clusters. PVFs were common among the proposed detrimental/opportunistic OTUs. CONCLUSIONS: The results clearly demonstrate the influence of exogeneous feeding and treatments on larval gastrointestinal microbiota and the role of bacteria in larval survival. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Increased understanding of the microbiota in rearing systems may contribute to successful implementation of microbial management in cod aquaculture.

Effects of bacterial treatment at early stages of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) on larval survival and development.

AIMS: To assess the effects of bacterial treatment at the earliest stages of cod rearing on the microbial load, larval development and performance, testing three bacterial strains (Carnobacterium divergens V41, Arthrobacter sp. and Enterococcus sp.) in vivo that were previously shown to have inhibitory potential towards fish pathogens in vitro. METHODS AND RESULTS: A bacterial mixture was added eight times to the rearing water from the prehatch to the mid-larval stage (a 38-day period). Microbiological analysis of ova, larvae and rearing water was performed regularly. Larval performance and development were evaluated by survival rate, hypersalinity tolerance and physiological measurements. Different larval survival rates were observed within and between treatments, and possibly explained by variations in larval microflora and established probionts. Larvae from one silo, which had been bathed in the bacterial suspension, showed the highest survival rate (42.1%), lowest Vibrio levels, and were significantly heavier (19.3%) and more stress tolerant than control larvae (P < 0.01). This coincided with the intestinal establishment of two of the tested bacteria. CONCLUSIONS: Arthrobacter and Enterococcus strains added regularly to the rearing water from the postfertilized egg stage can become established in larval gastrointestinal tract. The Enterococcus strain was associated with increased larval growth, performance and microflora control, indicating its probiotic nature. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Regular application of autochthonous probionts may promote larval welfare, development and stress tolerance at early stages, hence increasing production yield in intensive cod larviculture.

Analysis of effects induced by a pollock protein hydrolysate on early development, innate immunity and the bacterial community structure of first feeding of Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus L.) larvae.

A pollock protein hydrolysate was used for enrichment of the live feed offered to halibut larvae from the onset of exogenous feeding and the effects of treatment on selected innate immune parameters studied. The effects of treatment on the bacterial community structure of larvae were furthermore studied using the PCR-DGGE method. C3 and lysozyme were identified in larvae already at the onset of first feeding and low concentrations of IgM detected at this stage indicate maternal origin. Endogenous production of IgM was validated in the gastrointestinal tract of larvae from 29 days post onset of first feeding, with similar concentrations found in both groups. Feeding the peptide-enriched live feed stimulated production of lysozyme and affected the distribution of C3 in larval tissue but survival and normal development of halibut larvae were not affected by the treatment. Vibrio sp. and Pseudoalteromonas sp. dominated the bacterial community of larvae from both groups and peptide enrichment of the live feed was not found to affect the bacterial community structure associated with surface sterilized larvae.

Molecular characterization and quantitative analysis of superoxide dismutases in virulent and avirulent strains of Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida.

Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida is a facultatively intracellular gram-negative bacterium that is the etiological agent of furunculosis, a bacterial septicemia of salmonids that causes significant economic loss to the salmon farming industry. The mechanisms by which A. salmonicida evades intracellular killing may be relevant in understanding virulence and the eventual design of appropriate treatment strategies for furunculosis. We have identified two open reading frames (ORFs) and related upstream sequences that code for two putative superoxide dismutases (SODs), sodA and sodB. The sodA gene encoded a protein of 204 amino acids with a molecular mass of approximately 23.0 kDa (SodA) that had high similarity to other prokaryotic Mn-SODs. The sodB gene encoded a protein of 194 amino acids with a molecular mass of approximately 22.3 kDa that had high similarity to other prokaryotic Fe-SODs. Two enzymes with activities consistent with both these ORFs were identified by inhibition of O(2)(-)-catalyzed tetrazolium salt reduction in both gels and microtiter plate assays. The two enzymes differed in their expression patterns in in vivo- and in vitro-cultured bacteria. The regulatory sequences upstream of putative sodA were consistent with these differences. We could not identify other SOD isozymes such as sodC either functionally or through data mining. Levels of SOD were significantly higher in virulent than in avirulent strains of A. salmonicida subsp. salmonicida strain A449 when cultured in vitro and in vivo.