RUI: The Role of Facial Physiognomy in Stereotypic Trait Inference

直到最近，考虑到类别成员之间的目标水平差异，令人惊讶的是，对刻板印象的理论研究很少。相反，社会心理学家几乎只关注类别成员作为刻板印象的基础，基本上忽略了类别内的差异。然而，在过去的十年里，研究人员已经开始研究身体特征的差异（例如，肤色、鼻子形状等）在同一类别的人中，对性别的认识可能有助于我们理解陈规定型观念-一种被称为基于特征的陈规定型观念的陈规定型观念。基于特征的刻板印象的影响是不平凡的;研究人员已经证明，特征可能会过度影响监狱刑期，死刑判决，以及警察的决定，并在类别的影响之上。拟议的研究的目标是研究是否以及如何在面部容貌的差异预测我们的判断，其他类别成员单独。目前的研究项目包括三个阶段。 在第一阶段，研究人员将建立一个包含500多张面孔的数据库，每张面孔都有多个维度（刻板、威胁、男性化、女性化、娃娃脸、吸引力、值得信赖、快乐、愤怒、悲伤、厌恶、惊讶、恐惧/害怕和不寻常）。 这一数据库将免费提供给任何有兴趣将这些刺激用于研究目的的研究人员，并将为其他人节省大量时间和资源。在第二阶段，研究人员将测试基于特征的刻板印象的鲁棒性，通过测试是否更典型的特征更容易激活刻板印象，在不同的社会群体，不同的功能，和不同的刻板印象特征。最后，第三阶段将调查的过程中，功能影响特质判断。研究人员将测试特征的影响是否是通过分类介导的-这是几十年来定型研究的核心假设-或者，特征是否可以绕过分类并直接激活定型，正如一些人最近提出的那样。这项研究将通过为研究人员开发一套重要的面部刺激来加强科学基础设施，并促进目前对管理刻板印象的过程的理解。此外，这项研究将促进在一个主要是本科生和西班牙裔服务机构的本科生和研究生的培训。

Until somewhat recently, consideration of target-level differences among category members figured surprisingly little into theorizing about stereotyping. Rather, social psychologists have focused almost solely on category membership as the basis for stereotyping, essentially disregarding within-category differences. Over the past decade, however, researchers have begun to examine how differences in physical features (e.g., skin tone, nose shape, etc.) among people who share a category membership may contribute to our understanding of stereotyping -- a form of stereotyping that has been referred to as feature-based stereotyping. The effect of feature-based stereotyping is nontrivial; researchers have evidenced that features may unduly influence prison sentence lengths, capital punishment decisions, and police officers' decision to shoot over and above the influence of categories.The goal of the proposed research is to study whether and how differences in facial physiognomy predict our judgments of others over and above category membership alone. The current research project consists of 3 phases. In Phase 1, the researchers will build a database of over 500 faces, each rated on a number of dimensions (stereotypic, threatening, masculine, feminine, baby-faced, attractive, trustworthy, happy, angry, sad, disgusted, surprised, fearful/afraid, and unusual). This database will be made freely available to any investigator interested in using these stimuli for research purposes and will afford significant time and resource savings to others. In Phase 2, the researchers will test the robustness of feature-based stereotyping by testing whether or not more typical features activate stereotypes more readily, across different social groups, different features, and different stereotyped characteristics.Finally, Phase 3 will investigate the process by which features influence trait judgments. The researchers will test whether the influence of features is mediated through categorization -- a supposition that is has been central to decades of stereotyping research -- or, whether features can bypass categorization and directly activate stereotypes, as some have recently proposed. The research will both enhance scientific infrastructure by developing an important set of facial stimuli for researchers and also advance the current understanding of the processes that govern stereotyping. Moreover, the research will facilitate the training of undergraduate and graduate students at a predominantly undergraduate and Hispanic-serving institution.