ReviewRoyal Society open science2021
Why is the literature on first impressions so focused on White faces?
Review in Royal Society open science, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Early Emergence of Spontaneous Trait Content in Children's Unconstrained Impressions of Faces.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Data-driven psychophysical methods to diversify SIAs and address bias.Journal on multimodal user interfaces · 2026Article
- Facial basis of stereotypes: Judgements of warmth and competence based on cross-group typicality/distinctiveness of faces.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2025Article
- Capturing variability in children's faces: an artificial, yet realistic, face stimulus set.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Stereotypes bias social class perception from faces: The roles of race, gender, affect, and attractiveness.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2024Article
- Multiracial Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (MRMET): An inclusive version of an influential measure.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- No evidence for an other-race effect in dominance and trustworthy judgements from faces.Perception · 2024Article
- Implicit bias and experience influence overall but not relative trustworthiness judgment of other-race faces.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Interactive effects of participant and stimulus race on cognitive performance in youth: Insights from the ABCD study.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2024Article
- Effects of masculinity vs. femininity on competence judgement of politician faces and election outcome prediction.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Preferential looking studies of trustworthiness detection confound structural and expressive cues to facial trustworthiness.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The effect of facial occlusion on facial impressions of trustworthiness and dominance.Memory & cognition · 2022Article
- Face-to-trait inferences in Japanese children and adults based on Caucasian faces.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- The Effect of Wearing a Mask on Facial Attractiveness.Aesthetic surgery journal. Open forum · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We spontaneously attribute to strangers a wide variety of character traits based on their facial appearance. While these first impressions have little or no basis in reality, they exert a strong influence over our behaviour. Cognitive scientists have revealed a great deal about first impressions from faces including their factor structure, the cues on which they are based, the neurocognitive mechanisms responsible, and their developmental trajectory. In this field, authors frequently strive to remove as much ethnic variability from stimulus sets as possible. Typically, this convention means that participants are asked to judge the likely traits of White faces only. In the present article, we consider four possible reasons for the lack of facial diversity in this literature and find that it is unjustified. Next, we illustrate how the focus on White faces has undermined scientific efforts to understand first impressions from faces and argue that it reinforces socially regressive ideas about 'race' and status. We go on to articulate our concern that opportunities may be lost to leverage the knowledge derived from the study of first impressions against the dire consequences of prejudice and discrimination. Finally, we highlight some promising developments in the field.
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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.