研究發現：大衆臉更易博得信任

Being described as average-looking might not sound like much of a compliment, but having a ‘typical’ face means people trust you more.

沒有人會覺得相貌平平會是一種讚美，不過一張“大衆臉”能讓你看上去更可靠。

Psychologists created a scale of faces, ranging from unattractive to attractive, and found those around the half-way point were rated as the most trustworthy.

心理學家們給出一系列長相美醜不同的照片，發現外貌中等的人被認爲最值得信任。

The experts believe that we are more comfortable with familiar faces because we are tuned to fear the unknown and unusual.

專家認爲大衆臉讓我們感到舒服的原因是我們害怕未知和不尋常的事物。

Lead researcher Carmel Sofer, from Princeton University said: ‘Face typicality likely indicates familiarity and cultural affiliation.

普林斯頓大學首席研究員卡梅爾・索弗（Carmel Sofer）說：“臉部特徵的典型化意味着熟悉感和文化認同感。”

‘As such, these findings have important implications for understanding social perception, including cross-cultural perceptions and interactions.’

“這些研究成果對於瞭解社會認知，包括跨文化認知與交流，也具有重要的意義。”

For their study, the researchers created a ‘typical’ face by digitally combining 92 female faces.

研究人員通過數字技術拼合92名女性的臉部特徵，創造出一張“大衆臉”。

They also created an ‘attractive’ face by averaging the faces of 12 women who were independently rated as the most beautiful, from a separate set of photos.

他們還通過獨立評分從另一組照片中選出12名最美貌的女子，並用她們的臉拼合出一張“美人臉”。

The typical face and the attractive face were then merged together, and from this, the researchers created variations that had differing levels of attractiveness and typicality.

大衆臉和美人臉隨後被結合在一起，研究者們藉此分析出劃分長相美醜的差異特徵。

The result was a continuum of faces ranging from least attractive to most attractive, with the most typical face in the middle.

研究結果中長相由醜到美逐次演變，最典型的大衆臉排列居中。

To remove gender bias, only women rated the faces on a nine-point scale for trustworthiness or attractiveness.

爲排除性別偏見干擾，在9分滿分制的評價系統中，只有女性能夠參與長相可信度和外表排名的調查。

After each face was rated on three separate occasions, the results showed a U-shaped relationship between face typicality and trustworthiness.

參與者們按三種情況分別爲每一張臉打分。結果顯示臉部特徵的典型化與可信度之間呈U型關係。

That is, the closer a face was to the most typical face, the more trustworthy it was considered to be.

也就是說，長相特徵越接近典型的大衆臉越能獲得他人的信任。

When it came to attractiveness, however, typicality didn’t seem to play a role.

不過，臉部特徵的典型化與外表是否出衆之間似乎不存在類似的聯繫。

Participants rated faces as increasingly better-looking beyond the midpoint.

參與者打分5分以上的長相，分數越高越漂亮。

The research is published in the journal Psychological Science.

該研究發表於《心理科學》（Psychological Science）期刊。