Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://doi.org/10.48548/pubdata-1609
Full metadata record
FieldValue
Resource typeJournal Article
Title(s)The role of facial cues in signalling cooperativeness is limited and nuanced
DOI10.48548/pubdata-1609
Handle20.500.14123/1688
CreatorLohse, Johannes  0000-0001-6897-5304
Sanchez-Pages, Santiago  0000-0003-2259-0745
Turiegano, Enrique  0000-0003-4620-7894
AbstractHumans display a remarkable tendency to cooperate with strangers; however, identifying prospective cooperation partners accurately before entering any new relationship is essential to mitigate the risk of being exploited. Visual appearance, as inferrable, for example, from facial images on job portals and dating sites, may serve as a potential signal of cooperativeness. This experimental study examines whether static images enable the correct detection of an individual’s propensity to cooperate. Participants first played the Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) game, a standard cooperation task. Subsequently, they were asked to predict the cooperativeness of participants from a prior PD study relying solely on their static facial photographs. While our main results indicate only marginal accuracy improvements over random guessing, a more detailed analysis reveals that participants were more successful at identifying cooperative tendencies similar to their own. Despite no detectable main effect in our primary treatment variations (time pressure versus time delay), participants exhibited increased accuracy in identifying male cooperators under time pressure. These findings point towards a limited yet nuanced role of static facial images in predicting cooperativeness, advancing our understanding of non-behavioral cues in cooperative interactions.
LanguageEnglish
KeywordsCooperation; Facial images; Predictability; Signaling
Year of publication in PubData2025
Publishing typeParallel publication
Publication versionPublished version
Date issued2024-09-24
Creation contextResearch
Faculty / departmentFakultät Staatswissenschaften
Methodenzentrum
NotesThis publication was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Date of Availability2025-01-16T13:54:18Z
Archiving Facility Medien- und Informationszentrum (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg  02w2y2t16)
Published byMedien- und Informationszentrum, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
  Related Resources
Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 

Lohse_The_role_of_facial_cues_in_signalling_cooperativeness_is_limited_and_nuanced.pdf
MD5: 4377f44ddc18d04437db2822d75c4b8e
License: 
open-access


1.28 MB

Adobe PDF
View/Open

Items in PubData are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Citation formats
Access statistics

Page view(s): 0

Download(s): 0