THE FUNCTION OF A FACE ON PERSON PERCEPTI ON - THE EFFECT OF THE NUMBER OF TARGETS AND DEGREE OF FACIAL ATTRACTIVENESS

The present study investigated how the influence and the function of a face on person perception might vary with the number of targets (one, two or four) and the degree of facial attractiveness (positive or neg ative). One hundred sixty-seven Female undergraduates were tested. Aft er studying behavioral descriptions and photographs of targets, each s ubject was asked to form impressions and recall the descriptions of th e targets. The main results were as follows. (a) A face became more in fluential as the number of targets increased. (b) A positive face exer ted greater influence than a nagative Face. (c) The effet of the numbe r of targets was greater for nagative faces.