Facial Basis of Stereotypes: Judgements of Warmth and Competence Based on Cross-group Typicality/distinctiveness of Faces

Human migration is an increasingly common phenomenon and migrants are at risk of disadvantageous treatment. We reasoned that migrants may receive differential treatment by locals based on the closeness of their facial features to the host average. Residents of Türkiye, the country with the largest number of refugees currently, served as participants. Because many of these refugees are of Arabic origin, we created target facial stimuli varying along the axis connecting Turkish and Arabic morphological prototypes (excluding skin colour) computed using geometric morphometrics and available databases. Participants made judgements of two universal dimensions of social perception-warmth and competence-on these faces. We predicted that participants judging faces manipulated towards the Turkish average would provide higher warmth and competence ratings compared to judging the same faces manipulated towards the Arabic average. Bayesian statistical tools were employed to estimate parameter values in multilevel models with intercorrelated varying effects. The findings did not support the prediction and revealed raters (as well as target faces) to be an important source of variation in social judgements. In the absence of simple cues (e.g. skin colour, group labels), the effect of facial morphology on social judgements may be much more complex than previously assumed.