People pictured in full-body photographs were evaluated by volunteers for likeability, self-esteem, loneliness, religiosity, and political orientation based on their photographed clothing and non-verbal behaviours. 

This study, conducted by Sonoma State University’s Laura Naumann, with Simine Vazire then of Washington University, teamed with University of Cambridge’s Peter Rentfrow, and Samuel Gosling ofUniversity of Texas, also investigated volunteers’ accuracy in judging Big Five personality traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), proposed by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae of the U.S. National Institutes of Health

These ratings were compared with evaluations by people acquainted the photographed person.

Observers’ judgments were accurate for extraversion, self-esteem, and religiosity when people were photographed in a standardised pose.
Raters were correct for additional personality traits when judging photographs in spontaneous, informal poses.

These findings suggest that candid photographs provide more accurate cues to some personality characteristics than planned poses.
People may be able to “manage” perceptions by others based on an intentional body pose.

Judgments based on clothing cues were associated with less accurate judgments of personality characteristics.
In contrast, facial expression and posture enabled more accurate judgments.

Observers can make accurate inferences about some personality characteristics based on visual cues, according to these findings.

Novelist John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany noted that “Things often are as they appear. First impressions matter,” just as these researchers concluded.

-*How accurate are your judgments of personality traits for people you have not previously met?
-*How accurate are other people’s inferences about your personality traits?

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©Kathryn Welds