Trustworthy-Looking Face Meets Brown Eyes
Open accessAbstract
We tested whether eye color influences perception of trustworthiness. Facial photographs of 40 female and 40 male students were rated for perceived trustworthiness. Eye color had a significant effect, the brown-eyed faces being perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones. Geometric morphometrics, however, revealed significant correlations between eye color and face shape. Thus, face shape likewise had a significant effect on perceived trustworthiness but only for male faces, the effect for female faces not being significant. To determine whether perception of trustworthiness was being influenced primarily by eye color or by face shape, we recolored the eyes on the same male facial photos and repeated the test procedure. Eye color now had no effect on perceived trustworthiness. We concluded that although the brown-eyed faces were perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones, it was not brown eye color per se that caused the stronger perception of trustworthiness but rather the facial features associated with brown eyes.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Facial morphological features that typically accompany brown eyes lead to greater perceived trustworthiness.
“there is evidence that facial morphological features that typically accompany brown eyes lead to greater perceived trustworthiness [44].”
From Are dark-eyed dogs favoured by humans? Domestication as a potential driver of iris colour difference between dogs and wolves (2023) · cites this paper as [44]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
vegan: Community Ecology Package
Oksanen, J., Simpson, G. L., Blanchet, F. G., Kindt, R., Legendre, P., Minchin, P. R., O’Hara, R. B., Sólymos, P., Stevens, M. H. H., Szöcs, E., et al. (2001) · doi:10.32614/cran.package.vegan · Cited by 27,099 · see citing works
Geometric morphometrics for biologists: a primer
Zelditch, M. L., Swiderski, D. L., Sheets, H. D., & Fink, W. L. (2004) · Cited by 3,321 · see citing works
Distance‐Based Tests for Homogeneity of Multivariate Dispersions
Anderson, M. J. (2006) · Biometrics · doi:10.1111/j.1541-0420.2005.00440.x · Cited by 3,304 · see citing works
Multivariate dispersion as a measure of beta diversity
Anderson, M. J., Ellingsen, K. E., & McArdle, B. H. (2006) · Ecology Letters · doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00926.x · Cited by 2,697 · see citing works
Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review
Langlois, J. H., Kalakanis, L., Rubenstein, A. J., Larson, A., Hallam, M., & Smoot, M. (2000) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.126.3.390 · Cited by 2,429 · cited 1× · see citing works
“It has repeatedly been shown that facial appearance strongly affects various social interactions [1,2].”
BackgroundEffects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness
Perrett, D. I., Lee, K. J., Penton‐Voak, I. S., Rowland, D., Yoshikawa, S., Burt, D. M., Henzi, S. P., Castles, D. L., & Akamatsu, S. (1998) · Nature · doi:10.1038/29772 · Cited by 1,331 · see citing works
The human amygdala in social judgment
Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. R. (1998) · Nature · doi:10.1038/30982 · Cited by 1,125 · see citing works
The Human Amygdala in Social Judgment
Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., & Damásio, A. R. (2002) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/3077.003.0027 · Cited by 882 · see citing works
Genetic determinants of hair, eye and skin pigmentation in Europeans
Sulem, P., Gudbjartsson, D. F., Stacey, S. N., Helgason, A., Rafnar, T., Magnusson, K. P., Manolescu, A., Karason, A., Palsson, A., Thorleifsson, G., et al. (2007) · Nature Genetics · doi:10.1038/ng.2007.13 · Cited by 750 · see citing works
Hamermesh, D. S., & Biddle, J. E. (1993) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w4518 · Cited by 721 · see citing works
Freiwald, W. A., & Tsao, D. Y. (2010) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1194908 · Cited by 678 · see citing works
Social Psychological Face Perception: Why Appearance Matters
Zebrowitz, L. A., & Montepare, J. M. (2008) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00109.x · Cited by 672 · see citing works
Valid Facial Cues to Cooperation and Trust
Stirrat, M., & Perrett, D. I. (2010) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797610362647 · Cited by 607 · see citing works
Unique morphology of the human eye
Kobayashi, H., & Kohshima, S. (1997) · Nature · doi:10.1038/42842 · Cited by 534 · see citing works
Implicit Trustworthiness Decisions: Automatic Coding of Face Properties in the Human Amygdala
Engell, A. D., Haxby, J. V., & Todorov, A. T. (2007) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2007.19.9.1508 · Cited by 470 · see citing works
Tomasello, M., Hare, B. A., Lehmann, H., & Call, J. (2006) · Journal of Human Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.10.001 · Cited by 469 · see citing works
Carré, J. M., & McCormick, C. M. (2008) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0873 · Cited by 460 · see citing works
Kobayashi, H., & Kohshima, S. (2001) · Journal of Human Evolution · doi:10.1006/jhev.2001.0468 · Cited by 447 · see citing works
Friend or foe: The effect of implicit trustworthiness judgments in social decision-making
Wout‐Frank, M. V. ‘., & Sanfey, A. G. (2008) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.07.002 · Cited by 400 · see citing works
Todorov, A. (2008) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1440.012 · Cited by 382 · see citing works
Sturm, R. A., Duffy, D. L., Zhao, Z. Z., Leite, F. P. N., Stark, M. S., Hayward, N. K., Martin, N. G., & Montgomery, G. W. (2008) · The American Journal of Human Genetics · doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.005 · Cited by 378 · see citing works
Eiberg, H., Troelsen, J., Nielsen, M., Mikkelsen, A., Mengel-From, J., Kjaer, K. W., & Hansen, L. (2008) · Human Genetics · doi:10.1007/s00439-007-0460-x · Cited by 346 · see citing works
Shared perceptual basis of emotional expressions and trustworthiness impressions from faces.
Oosterhof, N. N., & Todorov, A. T. (2009) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0014520 · Cited by 331 · see citing works
Contributions of individual taxa to overall morphological disparity
Foote, M. (1993) · Paleobiology · doi:10.1017/s0094837300014056 · Cited by 304 · see citing works
Eye color and the prediction of complex phenotypes from genotypes.
Liu, F., van Duijn, K., Vingerling, J., Hofman, A., Uitterlinden, A., Janssens, A. C., & Kayser, M. (2009) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.01.027 · Cited by 285 · see citing works
Biometric Evidence that Sexual Selection Has Shaped the Hominin Face
Weston, E., Friday, A. E., & Lió, P. (2007) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000710 · Cited by 264 · see citing works
The Long Shadow of Temperament
Kagan, J., & Snidman, N. C. (2009) · Harvard University Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctv2jfvczc · Cited by 256 · see citing works
Windhager, S., Schæfer, K., & Fink, B. (2011) · American Journal of Human Biology · doi:10.1002/ajhb.21219 · Cited by 238 · see citing works
Heritability of the Specific Cognitive Ability of Face Perception
Zhu, Q., Song, Y., Hu, S., Li, X., Tian, M., Zhen, Z., Dong, Q., Kanwisher, N., & Jia Liu, B. (2010) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.11.067 · Cited by 234 · see citing works
Rezlescu, C., Duchaine, B., Olivola, C. Y., & Nick Chater, A. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034293 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
Second to fourth digit ratio and face shape
Fink, B., Grammer, K., Mitterœcker, P., Gunz, P., Schæfer, K., Bookstein, F. L., & Manning, J. T. (2005) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3179 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
Fröst, P. (2005) · Evolution and Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2005.07.002 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Buckingham, G., DeBruine, L. M., Little, A. C., Welling, L. L. M., Conway, C. A., Tiddeman, B., & Jones, B. C. (2006) · Evolution and Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2006.03.001 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Lehre, A., Lehre, K. P., Laake, P., & Danbolt, N. C. (2008) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.20358 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
Dental Arch Asymmetry in an Isolated Adriatic Community
Schæfer, K., Lauc, T., Mitterœcker, P., Gunz, P., & Bookstein, F. L. (2005) · American Journal of Physical Anthropology · doi:10.1002/ajpa.20224 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Why do blue-eyed men prefer women with the same eye color?
Laeng, B., Mathisen, R., & Johnsen, J.-A. (2006) · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1007/s00265-006-0266-1 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Iris pigmentation and behavioral inhibition
Rosenberg, A. A., & Kagan, J. (1987) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.420200403 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
Eye color predicts but does not directly influence perceived dominance in men
Kleisner, K., Kočnar, T., Rubešová, A., & Jaroslav Flegr, A. (2010) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.03.011 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Self-citationThe faces of desirable mates and dates contain mixed social status cues
Keating, C. F., & Doyle, J. (2002) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0022-1031(02)00007-0 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Physical and physiological correlates of behavioral inhibition
Rosenberg, A. A., & Kagan, J. (1989) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.420220802 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Shekar, S. N., Duffy, D. L., Frudakis, T. N., Montgomery, G. W., James, M. R., Sturm, R. A., & Martin, N. G. (2007) · Photochemistry and Photobiology · doi:10.1111/j.1751-1097.2007.00237.x · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Early lateral bias in tufted capuchins (Cebus apella)
Westergaard, G. C., Byrne, G., & Suomi, S. J. (1998) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/(sici)1098-2302(199801)32:1 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Konno, A., Aoki, H., Suzuki, E., Furuta, S., & Ueda, S. (2023) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.230854 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“The former case has been commonly pointed out as an unresolved issue in those studies using subjective ratings by human subjects [42 – 44], which should be r o y a l s o c i e t y pub l i s h i ng . o r g / j o u r n a l / r s o s R .”
Background
- Authors
- Kleisner, K., Priplatova, L., Frost, P., & Flegr, J.
- Affiliations
- Charles University (CZ)
- Corresponding author
- Kleisner, Karel
- ORCID
- Kleisner, Karel
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-01-09
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e53285
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3541379
- OpenAlex
- W2046384096
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 10.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Univerzita Karlova v Praze
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Face recognition and analysis
- Keywords
- perceived trustworthiness, eye color, brown eyes, blue eyes, facial shape, facial appearance, face images, gender differences, facial features
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Eye Color, Face, Female, Form Perception, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Trust, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
