Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access originally published online on March 26, 2008
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2008 3(2):119-127; doi:10.1093/scan/nsn009
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Evaluating face trustworthiness: a model based approach
Department of Psychology and Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
Judgments of trustworthiness from faces determine basic approach/avoidance responses and approximate the valence evaluation of faces that runs across multiple person judgments. Here, based on trustworthiness judgments and using a computer model for face representation, we built a model for representing face trustworthiness (study 1). Using this model, we generated novel faces with an increased range of trustworthiness and used these faces as stimuli in a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging study (study 2). Although participants did not engage in explicit evaluation of the faces, the amygdala response changed as a function of face trustworthiness. An area in the right amygdala showed a negative linear response—as the untrustworthiness of faces increased so did the amygdala response. Areas in the left and right putamen, the latter area extended into the anterior insula, showed a similar negative linear response. The response in the left amygdala was quadratic—strongest for faces on both extremes of the trustworthiness dimension. The medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus also showed a quadratic response, but their response was strongest to faces in the middle range of the trustworthiness dimension.
Keywords: faces; person perception; trustworthiness; amygdala
Correspondence should be addressed to Alexander Todorov, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. E-mail: atodorov{at}princeton.edu.
Received October 10, 2007. Accepted February 28, 2008.