Can your child make character judgements based on a person’s looks?

We all know that children are very good at making observations. This is particularly true when it comes to pointing out people’s flaws. But, is it possible that they can also make character judgements by simply looking at someone’s face?

 

Researchers found that this might just be the case and that children as young as three can judge a person’s characters traits –like trustworthiness and competence – by looking at their face.

 

Led by psychological scientist Emily Cogsdill, the study asked 99 adults and 141 children between three and 10, to evaluate pairs of computer-generated faces. The faces differed on one of three traits - trustworthiness, dominance, and competence.

 

When asked which face looked nice, those aged three to four were not as consistent in their answers as the seven-year-olds, but overall they were very consistent in judging trustworthiness than the other two traits.

 

Older children made judgments similar to judgments made by adults, suggesting a development in the ability. 

 

Ms Coghill said: “If such inferences take root early in development, as the data suggest, even infants might associate faces with trait-consistent behaviours, such as those conveying prosociality.”