ArticleScientific reports2021
Facial recognition technology can expose political orientation from naturalistic facial images.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Human enhancement, past and present.Monash bioethics review · 2026Article
- The impact of ecocentric leadership on organizational green innovation examining the serial mediation of green knowledge sharing and ambidexterity.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Smile variation leaks personality and increases the accuracy of interpersonal judgments.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Large language models know how the personality of public figures is perceived by the general public.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Py-Feat: Python Facial Expression Analysis Toolbox.Affective science · 2023Article
- A megastudy on the predictability of personal information from facial images: Disentangling demographic and non-demographic signals.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Using deep learning to predict ideology from facial photographs: expressions, beauty, and extra-facial information.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Face Recognition Method under Adaptive Image Matching and Dictionary Learning Algorithm.Computational intelligence and neuroscience · 2023Article
- Registered report: Social face evaluation: ethnicity-specific differences in the judgement of trustworthiness of faces and facial parts.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Algorithmic Political Bias in Artificial Intelligence Systems.Philosophy & technology · 2022Article
- Supporting Artificial Social Intelligence With Theory of Mind.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2022Review
- Machine Learning Algorithms to Detect Sex in Myocardial Perfusion Imaging.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ubiquitous facial recognition technology can expose individuals' political orientation, as faces of liberals and conservatives consistently differ. A facial recognition algorithm was applied to naturalistic images of 1,085,795 individuals to predict their political orientation by comparing their similarity to faces of liberal and conservative others. Political orientation was correctly classified in 72% of liberal-conservative face pairs, remarkably better than chance (50%), human accuracy (55%), or one afforded by a 100-item personality questionnaire (66%). Accuracy was similar across countries (the U.S., Canada, and the UK), environments (Facebook and dating websites), and when comparing faces across samples. Accuracy remained high (69%) even when controlling for age, gender, and ethnicity. Given the widespread use of facial recognition, our findings have critical implications for the protection of privacy and civil liberties.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.