Facial First Impressions Across Culture: Data-Driven Modeling of Chinese and British Perceivers’ Unconstrained Facial Impressions

TLDR

People rapidly form first impressions from facial appearance, which can influence social and economic outcomes, and prior research identifies three key dimensions—approachability, youthful‑attractiveness, and dominance—thought to reflect universal adaptive cues to threat detection or sexual selection. The study aimed to determine whether the same facial impression dimensions appear across cultures by building data‑driven models of Asian and Caucasian faces from Chinese and British perceivers’ unconstrained judgments. The authors constructed data‑driven models of facial impressions and cross‑validated the derived dimensions using computer‑generated average images. The models revealed common approachability and youthful‑attractiveness dimensions across perceivers and face races, a third capability‑like dimension, explained about 75 % of variance, and confirmed substantial cross‑cultural agreement, particularly on the most salient dimensions.

Abstract

People form first impressions from facial appearance rapidly, and these impressions can have considerable social and economic consequences. Three dimensions can explain Western perceivers’ impressions of Caucasian faces: approachability, youthful-attractiveness, and dominance. Impressions along these dimensions are theorized to be based on adaptive cues to threat detection or sexual selection, making it likely that they are universal. We tested whether the same dimensions of facial impressions emerge across culture by building data-driven models of first impressions of Asian and Caucasian faces derived from Chinese and British perceivers’ unconstrained judgments. We then cross-validated the dimensions with computer-generated average images. We found strong evidence for common approachability and youthful-attractiveness dimensions across perceiver and face race, with some evidence of a third dimension akin to capability. The models explained ~75% of the variance in facial impressions. In general, the findings demonstrate substantial cross-cultural agreement in facial impressions, especially on the most salient dimensions.