Caroline F. Keating

The relationship of social power to visual displays of dominance between men and women.

Two studies, with undergraduate subjects, investigated how sex and situation-specific power factors relate to visual behavior in mixed-sex interactions. The power variable in Study 1 was expert power, based on differential knowledge. Mixed-sex dyads were formed such that members had complementary areas of expertise. In Study 2, reward power was manipulated. Consistent with expectation states theory, both men and women high in expertise or reward power displayed high visual dominance, defined as the ratio of looking while speaking to looking while listening. Specifically, men and women high in expertise or reward power exhibited equivalent levels of looking while speaking and looking while listening. High visual dominance ratios have been associated with high social power in previous research. Both men and women low in expertise or reward power looked more while listening than while speaking, producing a relatively low visual dominance ratio. In conditions in which men and women did not possess differential expertise or reward power, visual behavior was related to sex. Men displayed visual behavior similar to their patterns in the high expertise and high reward power conditions, whereas women exhibited visual behavior similar to their patterns in the low expertise and low reward power conditions. The results demonstrate how social expectations are reflected in nonverbal power displays.

Military Rank Attainment of a West Point Class: Effects of Cadets' Physical Features

Prior research has shown that males are perceived, on the basis of their physical characteristics, as either dominant or submissive individuals, that is, as assertive leaders or as uninfluential followers. In particular, certain facial features, tallness, and an athletic physique are perceived as dominant characteristic. Do such physical features affect social mobility? Do dominant-looking men advance to higher ranks in the military hierarchy than submissive-looking men? The yearbook of the West Point Class of 1950 provides facial portraits of the graduating cadets, allows close approximations of their height and athletic prowess, and gives their military ranks while at the academy; their ultimate ranks appear in West Points Register of Graduates. This paper finds a substantial correlation between facial appearance and military rank while at West Point, as well as several weaker relationships.

Visual Scan Patterns of Rhesus Monkeys Viewing Faces

Two rhesus monkeys viewed black/white photographic slides depicting rhesus, human, chimpanzee, and schematic faces with direct gazes. Eye-track apparatus was used to assign visual fixations to one of four facial regions: the two eyes, nose, or mouth. Results showed that the eyes of stimulus faces received a disproportionate number of fixations from both observers across all stimulus face types. Stimulus faces depicting rhesus and human facial gestures shifted scan patterns somewhat, but did not disrupt the preoccupation with eyes. When the features of schematic faces were rearranged into non-facelike configurations, fixations directed to schematic stimuli were typically reduced in number.

A cross-cultural exploration of physiognomic traits of dominance and happiness

Abstract Morphological traits may convey social messages among humans as they do among other species. This study presents data from observers in 11 national/cultural settings who viewed 19 pairs of portrait photographs and selected either more dominant-looking or happier-looking pair members. Significant cross-sample agreement in dominance attributions emerged for eight portrait pairs. Significant cross-sample agreement in happiness attributions occured for nine portrait pairs. Post hoc, among the characteristics of dominant faces were receded hairlines and relatively broad faces. The traits of happier- looking faces frequently included relatively dark eyes and thick lips, with some exceptions.

Human Dominance Signals: The Primate in Us

The primate facility for nonverbal expression is largely owed to the evolution of specialized, communicative features conspicuously clustered about the face (Darwin, 1872/1965; Gregory, 1929/1965; Huber, 1930a, 1930b; Rinn, 1984). Non-human primates use the expressive abilities of the face to communicate social dominance information. Among group-living species of monkey and ape, certain facial signals correspond to an animal’s position in a dominance hierarchy (Jolly, 1972; Mazur, 1973; Wilson, 1975). These facial signals help maintain dominance or “status” relationships by permitting species members to forecast probable success or failure during competitive interactions with conspecifics.

Going to College and Unpacking Hazing: A Functional Approach to Decrypting Initiation Practices Among Undergraduates

Initiation practices likely support group functioning by promoting group-relevant skills and attitudes, reinforcing status hierarchies, and stimulating cognitive, behavioral, and affective forms of social dependency. In field tests of these propositions, 269 undergraduates from same-gender organizations rated their initiation experiences. As predicted, athletes reported relatively more physical challenge and pain, whereas members of Greek-letter organizations reported more social deviance and embarrassment. Hierarchy was positively associated with initiations featuring social deviance but unexpectedly negatively related to physically and psychologically harsh initiations. Harsh treatment and fun independently predicted group identity. Laboratory experiments on male (n 74) and female (n 37) undergraduates found that discomforting inductions increased social dependence on group opinion and, for women, increased additional forms of dependence (proximity to induction agents and negative mood when left alone). The results across studies suggested that hazing’s task masters are 3: schooling skills and attitudes, conveying hierarchy, and promoting social dependency.

Children's Attributions of Social Dominance from Facial Cues.

KEATING, CAROLINE F., and BAI, DINA L. Childrens Attributions of Social Dominance from Facial Cues. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 1269-1276. Ethological reports of animal dominance signals suggested that certain human brow and mouth gestures would influence the attributions of social dominance made by children. Stimulus photographs depicting adults with lowered brow expressions or without smiles were hypothesized to appear dominant relative to photographs showing adults with raised-brow expressions or with smiles, respectively. In addition, the cross-species record suggested that faces with physiognomic characteristics indicative of physical maturity would also look dominant. In tests of these hypotheses, children between 4 and 7 years of age heard stories describing social dominance interactions and chose photographs of adults who looked like the dominant characters described in the stories. The results confirmed predictions and indicated that human nonverbal dominance signaling may be patterned after that of other species.

Cultural Differences in the Perception of a Three-Dimensional Ponzo Illusion

An ecological hypothesis related to the Ponzo illusion is that people who show a large susceptibility are misapplying cues that are valid in their natural environments with which they have everyday experience. Past cross-cultural research supporting this hypothesis has been based on two-dimensional stimuli. A better test of the hypothesis would be based on judgments of three-dimensional, natural-world stimuli. Judges from urbanized areas in the United States (N = 21), from the Pacific islands (N = 21), and from urbanized areas in the Philippines (N = 10) viewed a three-dimensional version of the Ponzo illusion from a distance of 13.20 m. As predicted, Pacific Islanders showed less susceptibility to the illusion than judges from either of the two other two groups.

Do Babyfaced Adults Receive More Help? The (Cross-Cultural) Case of the Lost Resume

The hypothesis that babyish-looking adult faces would elicit help was tested in a field experiment using the “lost letter” technique. Digitized images of African-American and European-American adult male and female faces were made to look babyish (neotenous) by substituting enlarged eyes and lips for normal ones. Eyes and lips were reduced in size to make faces look mature. As expected, neotenous features made adults appear submissive, weak, naive, feminine, compassionate, and honest, but not more or less attractive, relative to mature features. Neotenous or mature faces were printed on (fictional) resumes, attached to stamped, addressed envelopes, and “lost” in the US (n = 408) and Kenya (n = 176). “Helping” was indexed by whether resumes were posted (returned) or not. Most results supported predictions; across nations, resumes depicting neotenous, white and black female faces and neotenous, white male faces were returned more often than were resumes displaying the mature versions of these faces. Returns for neotenous and mature black male faces, however, were not significantly different. Overall, support was found for the hypothesis that neotenous, submissive-looking facial characteristics cue social approach and elicit help while mature, dominant-looking facial traits cue avoidance.

The faces of desirable mates and dates contain mixed social status cues

Digitized images of adult faces were manipulated to test the effects of facial status cues on social perceptions and the desire to form relationships. Large, immature-looking eyes and mouths signaled submissiveness, whereas small, mature-looking eyes and mouths signaled dominance. As predicted, dominance cues made faces look less warm and submissiveness cues made faces look less powerful, relative to unchanged faces. Although feature manipulations successfully reduced the warmth and power of faces, they did not amplify them. Moreover, changed faces were judged as having less potential than unchanged faces as dates and mates, even when perceptions of normalcy, masculinity/femininity, and health were controlled. Further analyses suggested that normal faces optimize status cues thereby conveying a charismatic mix of warmth and power.