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Accuracy and bias in first impressions of attachment style from faces
Author(s) -
Alaei Ravin,
Lévêque Germain,
MacDonald Geoff,
Rule Nicholas O.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/jopy.12540
Subject(s) - psychology , attachment theory , style (visual arts) , anxiety , social psychology , affect (linguistics) , exploratory research , nonverbal communication , developmental psychology , insecure attachment , communication , archaeology , psychiatry , sociology , anthropology , history
Objective People gather important social information from subtle nonverbal cues. Given that one's attachment style can meaningfully affect the quality of one's relationships, we investigated whether people could perceive men's and women's attachment styles from photos of their neutral faces. Method In two studies, we measured targets' attachment styles then asked participants (total N = 893) to judge the male and female targets' attachment anxiety and avoidance from photos of their neutral faces (total N = 331) and to report their own attachment anxiety and avoidance. Results Participants detected men's attachment style from face photos significantly better than chance in an initial exploratory study and in a preregistered replication but did not consistently detect women's attachment style from their face photos. Moreover, participants' own attachment style biased these first impressions: Individuals with greater attachment anxiety viewed others as more anxiously attached. Conclusions People can detect some hints of unacquainted others' attachment styles from their faces but their own anxious attachment can bias these judgments.