TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2012//
TI  - Detection of Propensity for Aggression based on Facial Structure Irrespective of Face Race
JO  - Evolution and human behavior
A1  - Short, Lindsey A.
A1  - Mondloch, Catherine J.
A1  - McCormick, Cheryl M.
A1  - Carré, Justin M.
A1  - Ma, Ruqian
A1  - Fu, Genyue
A1  - Lee, Kang
SP  - 121
EP  - 129
VL  - 33
IS  - 2
N2  - The human face provides a wealth of information pertaining to the internal state and life-stage history of an individual. Facial width-to-height ratio is a size-independent sexually dimorphic trait, and estimates of aggression made by untrained adults judging own-race faces were positively associated with both facial width-to-height ratio and actual aggressive behavior. Given the significant adaptive value of accurately detecting aggressiveness based on facial appearance, we hypothesized that aggression estimates made by adults and 8-year-olds would be highly correlated with male facial width-to-height ratio even for a face category with which they had minimal experience-other-race faces. For each of the four race and age groups, estimates of aggression were positively correlated with facial width-to-height ratio irrespective of rating own-or other-race faces. Overall, the correlations between facial width-to-height ratio and ratings of aggression were stronger for adults than for children. Sensitivity to facial width-to-height ratio appears to be part of an evolved mechanism designed to detect threats in the external environment. This mechanism is likely broadly tuned and functions independently of experience.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1090-5138
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2011.07.002
ID  - ref1
ER  -