Much as we’d like to think we’re
free of prejudice, we all judge each other to some degree based on appearance.
It only takes a tenth of a second for someone to form an opinion of another
person, based solely on a glimpsed photograph. It’s no surprise that altering
lighting and perspective can affect how a person in a photograph is
viewed. Now, Ronnie Bryan, Pietro
Perona and Ralph Adolphs of CalTech have shown that distance matters as well.
When viewed from too close up, we all look like scoundrels.
The researchers showed
participants photographs of people taken from a distance of either 45 cm (well
within most people’s personal space boundary) or 135 cm (a comfortable speaking
distance for most people). Both pictures were taken simultaneously so that the
facial expressions would be identical between pairs of photographs. The
pictures were then digitally manipulated so that the size, position and
lighting of the faces did not differ regardless of how far away the camera had
been. Volunteers were unaware that the distances had been manipulated. You can
see an example below.
The subjects were then asked to
evaluate the trustworthiness of the people in the pictures, both directly (by
giving their opinions) and indirectly by playing monetary trust games. For
example, subjects were given $100 and asked to invest that money as they saw
fit amongst the models in the various photographs. The volunteers got returns
on their investments based on the responses those same models had previously
indicated they would make in each situation. Thus, the more accurately the
volunteers were able to judge the character of the models, the better their return
on investment would be.
Across the board, people who had
been photographed from within personal space boundaries were judged as less
trustworthy, attractive or competent than the same people photographed from
farther away. Knowing this, actors and politicians might do well to ask cameras
to back away, rather than posing for extreme close-ups.
Ronnie Bryan, Pietro Perona, & Ralph Adolphs (2012). Perspective Distortion from Interpersonal Distance Is an Implicit Visual Cue for Social Judgments of Faces PLoS ONE : doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045301
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