Regulation of facial trustworthiness evaluation: The proposal and empirical verification of the experience transfer hypothesis

Abstract: The impression of trustworthiness based on facial appearance plays an important role in interpersonal trust and cooperative behavior. Previous research results have indicated that a variety of additional information (e.g., facial features, context) could affect facial judgments by both bottom-up and top-down processes. However, the mechanism of the two adjustment factors is still unclear. Focusing on this issue, the current study proposes the “experience transfer hypothesis”, and explores the cognitive mechanisms, the boundary conditions of the experience transfer effect, and the underlying process of these two adjustments. This study will provide new ideas and empirical evidence to deepen our understanding of how interpersonal trust builds.