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Smiles in face matching: Idiosyncratic information revealed through a smile improves unfamiliar face matching performance
Author(s) -
Mileva Mila,
Burton A. Mike
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/bjop.12318
Subject(s) - matching (statistics) , face (sociological concept) , context (archaeology) , psychology , task (project management) , facial expression , identity (music) , artificial intelligence , cognitive psychology , computer science , social psychology , computer vision , communication , mathematics , linguistics , aesthetics , paleontology , philosophy , statistics , management , economics , biology
Unfamiliar face matching is a surprisingly difficult task, yet we often rely on people's matching decisions in applied settings (e.g., border control). Most attempts to improve accuracy (including training and image manipulation) have had very limited success. In a series of studies, we demonstrate that using smiling rather than neutral pairs of images brings about significant improvements in face matching accuracy. This is true for both match and mismatch trials, implying that the information provided through a smile helps us detect images of the same identity as well as distinguishing between images of different identities. Study 1 compares matching performance when images in the face pair display either an open‐mouth smile or a neutral expression. In Study 2, we add an intermediate level, closed‐mouth smile, to identify the effect of teeth being exposed, and Study 3 explores face matching accuracy when only information about the lower part of the face is available. Results demonstrate that an open‐mouth smile changes the face in an idiosyncratic way which aids face matching decisions. Such findings have practical implications for matching in the applied context where we typically use neutral images to represent ourselves in official documents.