Faces play a critical role in social interactions. Our responses to others' faces influence a diverse range of outcomes relating to mate choice, leadership and social exchange. This course explores some of the key issues relating to social perception of faces. Note that the course consists of six two-hour lectures in the first six weeks of the semester.
For each lecture, a folder containing both the introductory paper and the papers covered in that lecture can be downloaded by clicking on the ‘Lecture Readings’ links below. You can also download the introductory papers individually, if you'd prefer. Downloading these files requires a username and password. Email Prof Jones for this information.
This lecture will review recent evidence that facial appearance is related to a range of characteristics, including ‘Big 5’ personality traits, measures of dominance, trustworthiness, sexual strategy and health.
Introductory paper: Penton-Voak, I. S., Pound, N., Little, A. C. & Perrett, D. I. (2006). Personality judgments from natural and composite facial images: More evidence for a “kernel of truth” in social perception. Social Cognition, 24, 490-524.
Lecture 1 Slides, Lecture 1 Readings
This lecture will review the evidence that changes in fertility are correlated with changes in mate preferences and mating-related behaviours. It will also discuss the possible hormonal mechanisms for these effects and the controversial issue of their possible functions.
Introductory paper: Little, A. C., Jones, B. C. & DeBruine, L. M. (2011). Facial attractiveness: Evolutionary based research. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 366, 1638-1659.
Lecture 2 Slides, Lecture 2 Readings
This lecture will discuss the neural mechanisms that allow us to recalibrate our mate preferences and social perceptions in light of recent visual experience. It will also discuss the evidence that social learning has potentially important effects on human mate preferences that appear to be strikingly similar to the mate choice copying effects previously observed in some non-human species.
Introductory paper: Little, A. C., Jones, B. C., DeBruine, L. M. & Caldwell, C. C. (2011). Social learning and human mate preferences: a potential mechanism for generating and maintaining between-population diversity in attraction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 366, 366-375.
Introductory paper: Webster, M. A. & MacLeod, D. I. (2011). Visual adaptation and face perception. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 366, 1702-1725.
Lecture 3 Slides, Lecture 3 Readings
While many models of attraction propose that attractiveness judgments simply reflect preferences for ‘physical beauty’, this lecture will discuss recent neurobiological and behavioural evidence showing that people integrate different cues when evaluating others in ways that support efficient allocation of social effort.
Introductory paper: Frischen, A., Bayliss, A. P. & Tipper, S. P. (2007). Gaze cueing of attention: Visual attention, social cognition, and individual differences. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 694-724.
Lecture 4 Slides, Lecture 4 Readings
Early theories of human mate preferences and evolution emphasised consistency in the mate preferences of different cultures. By contrast with this emphasis on so-called ‘universal’ mate preferences, several recent studies have explored the ecological factors that predict cross-cultural differences in mate preferences. This lecture will review some of this research, focusing on the ongoing debate about the relative importance of cross-cultural differences in health, mating systems and violence.
Introductory paper: Gangestad, S.W. & Simpson, J.A. (2000). The evolution of human mating: Trade-offs and strategic pluralism. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 23, 573-644.
Lecture 5 Slides, Lecture 5 Readings
This final lecture will discuss some of the remaining big questions for work on social perception (e.g., does sexual orientation influence social perception). It will then present an overview of the course and the key issues covered. Further information (e.g., slides) for this lecture will be available nearer the time.
Lecture 6 Slides, Lecture 6 Readings
In the exam, you would be required to answer one question from each section
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