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Updated
Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Sabrina Philippe (Psychologist)
Medical validation:
December 10, 2022
According to a recent Japanese study, some individuals tend to jump to conclusions about other people’s personalities based solely on appearance.
According to new Japanese research relayed by The Conversation, judging someone from the first second – therefore based solely on their appearance – is a more widespread trend than we think.
An often unconscious and systematic judgment
In a series of online studies with more than 300 participants, researcher Atsunobu Suzuki and his colleagues discovered what they call “face-based trait inferences” (FBTI).
While most of us make this type of judgment to a lesser extent, scientists have found that some people consistently make extreme judgments (positive or negative) about individuals they encounter. A pattern that repeated itself regardless of the age, gender and ethnic origin of the “judged” participants.
“Here we demonstrate that some individuals have a disposition to draw extreme inferences about various traits of others from facial appearance.“, detail the researchers.
A phenomenon that is not entirely new: in 2008, a study published in the journal Cell had already demonstrated that certain faces with “hard eyes” and “masculine features” sent an unreliable image.
A judgment “at first sight” which is problematic according to Japanese researchers, especially during job interviews.
But for Sabrina Phillipe, a psychologist, this reaction is fundamentally human.
“We can never be neutral towards someone. Neutrality does not exist. A smell, eyes, a smile: all these elements will influence us, bring back memories. Our mind processes information according to what it has experienced, known. Therefore, this process will influence our opinion about an unknown person.”
Good in your body, good in your head!
Develop a benevolent posture
While previous work has shown that being aware of one’s biases can lead to slight improvements in the short term, the exercise seems a little more complex in the long term.
“We can train ourselves to change posture, to develop a form of “benevolent neutrality” by considering our first instincts as hypotheses to be verified… and not as certainties. Nevertheless, our first reactions will always remain instinctive. It’s almost animal.”