An experiment was recently conducted by researchers from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway University. The results of the research show that individuals deem trustworthy people to be more like them in their physical features. This was published in Psychological Science, a trusted and respected expert on these topics.
The Experiment for Trustworthy People
In the experiment, participants were first shown images of two people. The images where morphed with the photo of the participant, who was then asked whether the image showed more of their face or the other person’s. Here is the process that was followed for this research study:
- An activity followed during which the participant dealt with two people. One resulted in the reciprocation of trust, the other resulted in betrayal.
- A photo-morph activity took place again. When asked whether the face looked more like them or not, the participants decided that the trustworthy person looked more like them.
- Several earlier studies have already shown that people tend to trust those who have strong resemblance with them. The result of this experiment strongly suggests that the opposite is also applicable. According to Harry Farmer, one of the researchers, people tend to find similarities with trustworthy people.
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The Results
These findings are of great significance, according to lead author Professor Manos Tsakiris, because it demonstrated how kinship impacts attractiveness in social circles. People’s perception of similarity goes beyond objective observation of traits; instead, it is strongly influenced by the social transactions and interpersonal relationships that establish how trustworthy people are.