Face–context integration and trustworthiness evaluation

Judgements of trustworthiness based on facial features have mainly been investigated by presenting faces in isolation. However, real-life situations often involve contextual cues. Here, we review our work showing that judgements of trustworthiness from faces are influenced by contextual threat. Individuals are judged as less trustworthy when their faces are surrounded by threatening, as opposed to neutral or merely negative, contexts. Delving into the mechanisms underlying face-context integration, our work reveals that the bond between trustworthiness and threat goes beyond mere stimuli congruency, suggesting that threatening contexts alter person evaluation by conveying information of adaptive significance. We propose an inferential approach to face-context integration, where faces and contexts are encoded relationally: modifying this relational encoding, via verbal or emotional cues, results in changes in face-context integration. We conclude by outlining the significance of embracing the impact of contextual cues in shaping impressions from faces.