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Detecting trustworthiness in strangers: human faces vary in their informativeness, but cannot be accurately judged

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  • Adam Zylbersztejn

    (Université Lyon 2, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, Emlyon Business School, GATE, CNRS, 69007, Lyon, France; research fellow at Vistula University Warsaw (AFiBV), Warsaw, Poland)

  • Zakaria Babutsidze

    (SKEMA Business School, Université Côte d’Azur (GREDEG), Nice, France)

  • Nobuyuki Hanaki

    (Institute of Social and Economic Research, the University of Osaka, Japan, and University of Limassol, Cyprus)

  • Astrid Hopfensitz

    (Emlyon Business School, Université Lyon 2, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, GATE, CNRS, 69007, Lyon, France)

Abstract

In social interactions, humans care about knowing their partner’s face. Some experiments report that facial information facilitates trustworthiness detection, while others find it does not. We add to this literature by exploring heterogeneity in the demand for, and in the usefulness of, facial information. The incentivized experimental task consists in predicting strangers’ trustworthiness from neutral portrait pictures. Using data from a three-stage laboratory experiment (N = 357) including two independent sets of stimuli coupled with two distinct sources of predictions, we document substantial heterogeneity in facial informativeness. However, we find that trustworthiness detection from facial information is not an ability. Nonetheless, individuals assign excessive value to receiving facial information about others.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Zylbersztejn & Zakaria Babutsidze & Nobuyuki Hanaki & Astrid Hopfensitz, 2025. "Detecting trustworthiness in strangers: human faces vary in their informativeness, but cannot be accurately judged," Working Papers 2527, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    • Handle: RePEc:gat:wpaper:2527
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