Achievement

IGERT trainee Ronald Bryan and IGERT faculty Ralph Adolphs discovered that the change in appearance due to the perspective distortion that results from viewing distance plays a role in social judgments. Specifically, they found that photographs of faces taken from within personal space elicit lower investments in an economic trust game, and lower ratings of social traits, such as trustworthiness, competence, and attractiveness, compared to photographs taken from a greater distance. This research thus uncovers a novel social cue that influences a range of social judgments as a function of interpersonal distance, which may be processed implicitly. Their research was published in the article, "Perspective Distortion from Interpersonal Distance Is an Implicit Visual Cue for Social Judgments of Faces," PLOS, 2012.