Moral Face

This research demonstrates that individuals make moral judgments based on ideological inferences from facial cues. Using racially homogeneous male faces, four studies show that individuals infer ideological beliefs and thus group membership (in- vs. out-group) from a novel face and that the fit between the inferred social identity and the perceiver’s own social identity leads to judgments of moral superiority. Further evidence shows that the salient social identity moderates the moral evaluation. These results reflect the automaticity of social categorization, which contributes to moral judgments of a person.

本研究表明，人们会基于从面部线索中推导出的意识形态倾向做出道德判断。本研究采用种族同质的男性面孔开展四项研究，结果显示：人们可从陌生面孔中推导出个体的意识形态信念，进而判断其所属的群体成员身份——内群体与外群体（in-group vs. out-group）；当被推导出的社会身份与感知者自身的社会身份契合时，会引发道德优越感判断。进一步证据显示，凸显的社会身份会对道德评价起到调节作用。上述结果反映了社会分类的自动化特性，而该特性会促成对个体的道德判断。