Social attributions from faces bias human choices
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Updated: Apr 21, 2026

Post-Movie Subliminal Measurement PMSM, for Investigating Implicit Social Bias
Published on: February 29, 2020
Christopher Y Olivola1, Friederike Funk, Alexander Todorov
1Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. olivola@cmu.edu
Abstract:
Our success and well-being, as individuals and societies, depend on our ability to make wise social decisions about important interpersonal matters, such as the leaders we select and the individuals we choose to trust. Nevertheless, our impressions of people are shaped by their facial appearances and, consequently, so too are these social decisions. This article summarizes research linking facial morphological traits to important social outcomes and discusses various factors that moderate this relationship.
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