The effect of approach and avoidance motivation on self-perception.

This work addresses the link between motivation and self-perception by systematically studying visual self-representations. We propose that the way individuals perceive themselves may be associated with dispositional and situationally induced approach and avoidance motivation. First, we investigate how dispositional differences in approach/avoidance motivation and self-esteem relate to self-perception.

Oxytocin has sex-specific effects on trust and underlying neurophysiological processes.

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) regulates mammalian social approach behavior across sexes. Yet most OT studies in humans exclusively investigated men. Here, we studied sex differences in OT's effects on human trust behavior in 144 heterosexual participants (73 women, 71 men).

Facial threat affects trust more strongly than facial attractiveness in women than it does in men.

Trust is essential in initiating social relationships. Due to the differential evolution of sex hormones as well as the fitness burdens of producing offspring, evaluations of a potential mating partner's trustworthiness likely differ across sexes. Here, we explore unknown sex-specific effects of facial attractiveness and threat on trusting other-sex individuals.

Person knowledge shapes face identity perception.

Recognition of others' identity through facial features is essential in life. Using both correlational and experimental approaches, we examined how person knowledge biases the perception of others' facial identity. When a participant believed any two individuals were more similar in personality, their faces were perceived to be correspondingly more similar (assessed via mousetracking, Study 1).

Who gets ostracized? A personality perspective on risk and protective factors of ostracism.

Ostracism, excluding and ignoring others, results from a variety of factors. Here, we investigate the effect of personality on the likelihood of becoming a target of ostracism. Theorizing that individuals low in conscientiousness or agreeableness are at risk of getting ostracized, we tested our hypotheses within 5 preregistered studies: Four experiments investigating participants' willingness to ostracize targets characterized by different personality traits and a reverse correlation face modeling study where we determined and subsequently validated the stereotypical face of an ostracized person.

Beyond attractiveness: A multimethod approach to study enhancement in self-recognition on the Big Two personality dimensions.

Self-enhancement refers to the phenomenon that individuals tend to have unrealistically positive self-views. Traditional measures of self-enhancement typically imply self-evaluations and reference values, such as evaluations by others or evaluations of the average other. Comparing individuals' self-evaluations with such reference values, however, bears risks.

The conceptual structure of face impressions.

Humans seamlessly infer the expanse of personality traits from others' facial appearance. These facial impressions are highly intercorrelated within a structure known as "face trait space." Research has extensively documented the facial features that underlie face impressions, thus outlining a bottom-up fixed architecture of face impressions, which cannot account for important ways impressions vary across perceivers.

The Basel Face Database: A validated set of photographs reflecting systematic differences in Big Two and Big Five personality dimensions.

Upon a first encounter, individuals spontaneously associate faces with certain personality dimensions. Such first impressions can strongly impact judgments and decisions and may prove highly consequential. Researchers investigating the impact of facial information often rely on (a) real photographs that have been selected to vary on the dimension of interest, (b) morphed photographs, or (c) computer-generated faces (avatars).

Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions.

In two studies we disentangled and systematically investigated the impact of subtle facial cues to masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions. Participants judged the same unambiguously male and female target persons-either with masculine or feminine facial features slightly enhanced-regarding stereotypically masculine (i.e.

Modelling perceptions of criminality and remorse from faces using a data-driven computational approach.

Perceptions of criminality and remorse are critical for legal decision-making. While faces perceived as criminal are more likely to be selected in police lineups and to receive guilty verdicts, faces perceived as remorseful are more likely to receive less severe punishment recommendations. To identify the information that makes a face appear criminal and/or remorseful, we successfully used two different data-driven computational approaches that led to convergent findings: one relying on the use of computer-generated faces, and the other on photographs of people.

Changing the personality of a face: Perceived Big Two and Big Five personality factors modeled in real photographs.

General, spontaneous evaluations of strangers based on their faces have been shown to reflect judgments of these persons' intention and ability to harm. These evaluations can be mapped onto a 2D space defined by the dimensions trustworthiness (intention) and dominance (ability). Here we go beyond general evaluations and focus on more specific personality judgments derived from the Big Two and Big Five personality concepts.

Portraits made to measure: manipulating social judgments about individuals with a statistical face model.

The social judgments people make on the basis of the facial appearance of strangers strongly affect their behavior in different contexts. However, almost nothing is known about the physical information underlying these judgments. In this article, we present a new technology (a) to quantify the information in faces that is used for social judgments and (b) to manipulate the image of a human face in a way which is almost imperceptible but changes the personality traits ascribed to the depicted person.