Is Voting Skin-Deep? Estimating the Effect of Candidate Ballot Photographs on Election Outcomes

In the Northern Territory, Australia, ballot papers for territory elections depict candidates’ photographs. We exploit this unusual electoral feature by looking at the effect that candidates’ beauty and skin color has on voting patterns. Our results for beauty are mixed, but we find strong evidence that skin color matters. In electorates with a small Indigenous population, lighter-skinned candidates receive more votes, while in electorates with a high number of Indigenous people, darker-skinned candidates are rewarded at the ballot box. The relationship between skin color and electoral performance is stronger for challengers than incumbents. We explain this with a model in which voters use skin color as a proxy for some underlying characteristic which they value only to the extent that they share the trait.elections, beauty, race, facial characteristics

The Composite Effect for Inverted Faces is Reliable at Large Sample Sizes and Requires the Basic Face Configuration

Abstract The absence of the face composite effect (FCE) for inverted faces is often considered evidence that holistic processing operates only on upright faces. However, such absence might be explained by power issues: Most studies that have failed to find the inverted FCE tested 24 participants or less. Here we find that the inverted FCE exists reliably when we tested at least 60 participants. The inverted FCE was ∼ 18% the size of the upright FCE, and it was unaffected by testing order: It did not matter whether participants did the upright condition first (Experiment 1, n = 64) or the inverted condition first (Experiment 2, n = 68). The effect also remained when upright and inverted trials were mixed (Experiment 3, n = 60). An individual differences analysis found a modest positive correlation between inverted and upright FCE, suggesting partially shared mechanisms. A critical control experiment demonstrates that the inverted FCE cannot be explained by visuospatial attention or other generic accounts because the effect disappeared when the basic face configuration was disrupted (Experiment 4, n = 50). Our study shows that the inverted FCE is a reliable effect that requires an intact face configuration, consistent with the notion that some holistic processing also operates on inverted faces

The Composite Effect for Inverted Faces is Reliable at Large Sample Sizes and Requires the Basic Face Configuration

Abstract The absence of the face composite effect (FCE) for inverted faces is often considered evidence that holistic processing operates only on upright faces. However, such absence might be explained by power issues: Most studies that have failed to find the inverted FCE tested 24 participants or less. Here we find that the inverted FCE exists reliably when we tested at least 60 participants. The inverted FCE was ∼ 18% the size of the upright FCE, and it was unaffected by testing order: It did not matter whether participants did the upright condition first (Experiment 1, n = 64) or the inverted condition first (Experiment 2, n = 68). The effect also remained when upright and inverted trials were mixed (Experiment 3, n = 60). An individual differences analysis found a modest positive correlation between inverted and upright FCE, suggesting partially shared mechanisms. A critical control experiment demonstrates that the inverted FCE cannot be explained by visuospatial attention or other generic accounts because the effect disappeared when the basic face configuration was disrupted (Experiment 4, n = 50). Our study shows that the inverted FCE is a reliable effect that requires an intact face configuration, consistent with the notion that some holistic processing also operates on inverted faces

The development of upright face perception depends on evolved orientation-specific mechanisms and experience

Here we examine whether our impressive ability to perceive upright faces arises from evolved orientation-specific mechanisms, our extensive experience with upright faces, or both factors. To do so, we tested Claudio, a man with a congenital joint disorder causing his head to be rotated back so that it is positioned between his shoulder blades. As a result, Claudio has seen more faces reversed in orientation to his own face than matched to it. Controls exhibited large inversion effects on all tasks, but Claudio performed similarly with upright and inverted faces in both detection and identity-matching tasks, indicating these abilities are the product of evolved mechanisms and experience. In contrast, he showed clear upright superiority when detecting “Thatcherized” faces (faces with vertically flipped features), suggesting experience plays a greater role in this judgment. Together, these findings indicate that both evolved orientation-specific mechanisms and experience contribute to our proficiency with upright faces

Within-person variability promotes learning of internal facial features and facilitates perceptual discrimination and memory

Recent research indicates that exposure to within-person variability is essential for developing robust representations of new faces. For example, people perform better on a face matching task after exposure to highly variable photos, compared to less variable photos. However, the specific aspects of face processing that benefit from variability remain unclear. We investigated whether within-person variability improves the ability to match and recognise individual faces, and whether it promotes learning of internal facial features. In one exploratory and one confirmatory experiments, we tested matching and recognition performance of participants after they learned 4 individual faces in a high variability condition and another 4 in a low variability condition. Further, to assess if variability promotes robust learning of invariant facial features (e.g., eyes, nose), we compared performance with and without external facial features (full headshots vs cropped images showing only internal features). We found a large benefit of variability in the recognition task, and a smaller effect on the matching task, but the size of the benefit was comparable with and without the presence of external features. Therefore, within-person variability improves a variety of face recognition skills, and it encourages the encoding of internal facial features

Face learning strategies in typical observers and in developmental prosopagnosia

peer reviewedPeople with developmental prosopagnosia (DPs) show deficits in face recognition tasks and report using non-facial/peripheral cues (e.g. hairstyle) to compensate in their day-to-day lives. However, most experimental tasks use non-ecological stimuli (e.g. hair is removed), maybe inflating their observed difficulties. Recent studies highlight the importance of peripheral features for typical observers too. We thus compared recognition performance of 30 DPs and 35 controls after they studied three identities from videos. Test images showed target identities (and foils) with an appearance similar (i.e., consistent hairstyle, makeup) or dissimilar to learning. Further, images either only showed inner facial features or included peripheral features to assess their contribution. Although DPs made more errors overall than controls, error patterns were strikingly similar in both groups. Targets were missed more often when peripheral features were concealed or had changed, and false alarms were more frequent with similar looking foils. Face learning strategies of DPs and typical observers are thus comparable, which suggests that DPs represent the tail end of face recognition abilities rather than displaying qualitatively different abilities

High-Frequency Transcranial Random Noise Stimulation Enhances Perception of Facial Identity

Recently, a number of studies have demonstrated the utility of transcranial current stimulation as a tool to facilitate a variety of cognitive and perceptual abilities. Few studies, though, have examined the utility of this approach for the processing of social information. Here, we conducted 2 experiments to explore whether a single session of high-frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) targeted at lateral occipitotemporal cortices would enhance facial identity perception. In Experiment 1, participants received 20 min of active high-frequency tRNS or sham stimulation prior to completing the tasks examining facial identity perception or trustworthiness perception. Active high-frequency tRNS facilitated facial identity perception, but not trustworthiness perception. Experiment 2 assessed the spatial specificity of this effect by delivering 20 min of active high-frequency tRNS to lateral occipitotemporal cortices or sensorimotor cortices prior to participants completing the same facial identity perception task used in Experiment 1. High-frequency tRNS targeted at lateral occipitotemporal cortices enhanced performance relative to motor cortex stimulation. These findings show that high-frequency tRNS to lateral occipitotemporal cortices produces task-specific and site-specific enhancements in face perception

Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia show independent impairments in face perception, face memory and face matching.

Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) all exhibit impairments in face memory, but the specificity of these face memory impairments is debated. One problem is that standard behavioural tasks are not able to provide independent measurement of face perception, face memory, and face matching (the decision process required to judge whether two instances of a face are of the same individual or different individuals). The present study utilised a new test of face matching, the Oxford Face Matching Test (OFMT), and a novel analysis strategy to derive these independent indices. Twenty-nine individuals with DP and the same number of matched neurotypical controls completed the OFMT, the Glasgow Face Matching Test, and the Cambridge Face Memory Test. Results revealed individuals with DP exhibit impairments in face perception, face memory and face matching. Collectively, these results suggest that face processing impairments in DP are more comprehensive than has previously been suggested