Seeing is believing: observer perceptions of trait trustworthiness predict perceptions of honesty in high-stakes emotional appeals

ABSTRACT

Instantaneous first impressions of facial trustworthiness influence the manner in which observers evaluate ensuing information about stranger targets [e.g. Porter, S., & ten Brinke, L. (2009). Dangerous decisions: A theoretical framework for understanding how judges assess credibility in the courtroom. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 14, 119–134. doi:10.1348/135532508X281520]. In two studies, we examined the association between perceptions of general trustworthiness and honesty assessments in an extremely high-stakes sample – individuals publicly pleading for the return of a missing relative, half of whom had killed the missing individual. In Study 1, observers (N = 131) provided trustworthiness ratings – either before or after viewing and evaluating the honesty of videotaped or audio-only pleas – for a still image that depicted a neutral expression on the face of each pleader. In Study 2, observers (N = 220) evaluated the sincerity of audio pleas paired either with an untrustworthy-looking target, a trustworthy-looking target, or no target face. Collectively, our findings indicated that first impressions of trait trustworthiness form the basis of state judgments of honesty, potentially contributing to misguided credibility assessments and miscarriages of justice in the legal system.

KEYWORDS:

• Trustworthiness
• biased decision-making
• biases
• deception detection
• credibility assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. While randomization to condition was successful, a disproportionate number of participants did not complete the video-still condition. These individuals were dropped from analyses, leaving this condition with a somewhat smaller n than the others.

2. Female observers (M = 3.56, SD = 0.60) gave significantly higher trustworthiness ratings than male observers overall (M = 3.19, S = 0.92), t(129) = −2.33, p = .02, d = 0.48.

3. The positive relationship between trustworthiness ratings and impressions of honesty was even evidenced in a between-subjects analysis in which observer ratings were uninfluenced by the other task. That is, ratings of facial trustworthiness from the still-audio condition were positively associated with honesty ratings in the video-still condition, r(18) = .40, p_one-tailed = .04.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) through a grant to the second author [grant number 410-2010-0034].