Do Perceptions of Social Traits and Identity from Faces Share Underlying Processes?

We glean a wealth of social information about an individual with a mere a glance of their face. We use faces to determine one’s identity and form personality impressions. This thesis sought to examine whether perceptions of identity and traits from faces share underlying processes. Overall, although trait impressions are tied to the identity of a face to some extent, these are largely independent processes. The outcomes of this thesis shed light on how perceptions of different facial signals interact, which will contribute to the development of a unified theory of face perception.