The author is Alexander Todorov, and the subtitle is The Irresistible Influence of First Impressions. Here is one short excerpt:
When Israeli and Japanese women rated these faces on trustworthiness, their impressions were predictably influenced by what they considered typical. As the face became more similar to the typical Israeli face, Israelis trusted it more and Japanese trusted it less and less. As the face became more similar to the typical Japanese face, the opposite occurred. We trust those who look like members of our own tribe.
The book has excellent photos and plates, recommended.
Big news. Water is wet.
That’s why God made us in his image, so we could trust him.
Physiognomy is real
Which is why Israelis likely would have no problems recognizing the difference between Ashkenazim and Sephardim.
‘The team also used its data to better understand the history of the Ashkenazi Jewish people through analyzing both level of similarity within Ashkenazi genomes and between Ashkenazi and non-Jewish European genomes. By analyzing the length of identical DNA sequences that Ashkenazi individuals share, the researchers were able to estimate that 25 to 32 generations ago, the Ashkenazi Jewish population shrunk to just several hundred people, before expanding rapidly to eventually include the millions of Ashkenazi Jews alive today.
Further, the researchers concluded that modern Ashkenazi Jews likely have an approximately even mixture of European and Middle Eastern ancestry. This suggests that after the Jewish people migrated from the Middle East to Europe, they recruited people from local European populations.
These results are compatible with those of prior work on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed on maternally. This prior work suggested that Ashkenazi men from the Middle East intermarried with local European women. The Ashkenazi population “hasn’t been likely as isolated as at least some researchers considered,” said Keinan.
Finally, the newly sequenced genomes shed light on the deeper history of Europe, showing that the European and Middle Eastern portions of Ashkenazi ancestry diverged just around 20,000 years ago.’ http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/40956/title/Jewish-Heritage-Written-in-DNA/
“As the face became more similar to the typical Israeli face,”
What’s the typical Israeli face look like anyway? Evidently stereotyping is a constant in human perception.
Yep. See link above concerning the Ashkenazim and Sephardim, both of whom are well represented among the roughly 75% of Israelis that are Jewish.
No, only straight white men stereotype and discriminate, the Japanese have never treated any Asian countries badly.
Poe’s law, Nanking example.
Adam Sandler?
I suppose that’s why God is depicted as looking like us. What if God doesn’t look like us? What if God doesn’t even have a physical presence? What if God is entirely inorganic, essentially intelligence without physical form? Would people be believers in such a God?
You are a part of God as well, by definition. God is obviously not an old man with a beard. I think few believers actually believe that.
You’re right, it’s bearded guy with killer abs nailed to a cross.
Then how was God walking through Eden in the cool of the day?
“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
They were hiding near the trees, not hiding in the trees.
A convenient crutch to avoid vulnerability.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-introverted-face/381697/?utm_source=SFFB
A person who is smiling looks more trustworthy?
Is it just me or maybe you should do the study on different faces when both people are making a neutral expression.
“When Israeli and Japanese women ..”
Obviously a bit of an outlier, with two societies very rooted in uniqueness. Try again with San Francisco and Chicago natives.
It would be interesting to know if a low trust group, say, black Nigerians, rated the in-group as favourably as the out-group.
If I recall correctly the Implicit Association Test shows that American blacks are somewhat likely to have an anti-black bias. Maybe less true in a majority black country like Nigeria, but good question.
The quoted text suggests the model is
“if looks like me, trust; otherwise don’t trust”
but what if the model is
“if looks like me, then apply well-exercised filters on people from my tribe; otherwise don’t trust.”
If a Roswell-type alien landed, I would say “don’t trust” because I have no way to evaluate.
Why would they pick two types of people that are notorious for their sneakiness towards outgroups? If beauty standards aren’t race-specific, trustworthiness might also be encoded in the face. Need to look at Bushmen or Saxons or something to see if the more trustworthy types still set off the same alarms.
File under the long list labeled “people are assholes”.
However, it’s not clear that the ability to trust (or not) other’s being biased by looks isn’t culturally specific.
Maybe some cultures inculcate social norms that encourage interracial trust and others don’t.
That the Japanese and Israelis are a little insular isn’t surprising.
Jews have fiercely guarded their culture, Europeans haven’t. At the present moment in history I like the chances of the assholes.
Their chances for what?
Keeping their culture the same? Keeping their economy going for the next 100 years? Conquering the world?
Good question. I will just say that given hand-wringing European globalists and unapologetically Jewish Jews, my assessments of the merits of each have changed in the last twenty years.
Which part of European culture are you specifically concerned about? Enlightenment values that contributed to the end of rule by tyrants and the separation between church and state? Or some other specific kinds of things?