First Impressions From Faces Among U.S. and Culturally Isolated Tsimane’ People in the Bolivian Rainforest

Abstract

The authors examined the generalizability of first impressions from faces previously documented in industrialized cultures to the Tsimane’ people in the remote Bolivian rainforest. Tsimane’ as well as U.S. judges showed within-culture agreement in impressions of attractiveness, babyfaceness, and traits (healthy, intelligent/knowledgeable, dominant/respected, and sociable/warm) of own-culture faces. Both groups also showed within-culture agreement for impressions of other-culture faces, although it was weaker than for own-culture faces, particularly among Tsimane’ judges. Moreover, there was between-culture agreement, particularly for Tsimane’ faces. Use of facial attractiveness to judge traits contributed to agreement within and between cultures but did not fully explain it. Furthermore, Tsimane’, like U.S., judges showed a strong attractiveness halo in impressions of faces from both cultures as well as the babyface stereotype, albeit more weakly. In addition to cross-cultural similarities in trait impressions from faces, supporting a universal mechanism, some effects were moderated by perceiver and face culture, consistent with perceiver attunements conditioned by culturally specific perceptual learning.