"Wide-eyed" and "crooked-faced": Determinants of perceived and real honesty across the life span

Abstract

Structural qualities of honest-looking faces, developmental relationships between perceived and real honesty, and actual honesty of honest-looking people were investigated. Babyfaceness, attractiveness, facial symmetry, and large eyes each had positive, independent effects on perceived honesty, revealing a babyface overgeneralization effect, an attractiveness halo effect, and the metaphorical associations "wide-eyed innocence" and "crooked character." Consistent with a self-fulfilling prophecy, men who looked more honest early in life became more honest later, particularly when appearance was stable. Women showed an "artifice" effect: Those less honest early in life became more honest-looking later. Differential accuracy in perceiving honesty in men and women accompanied these developmental effects. Honesty was accurately read in men whose early appearance of honesty was stable. Honesty was incorrectly read in women whose early real honesty was stable. When these individual differences were ignored, real and perceived honesty were unrelated.