Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers

Satchell, Liam Paul; Hall, Jess; Jones, Alex

doi:10.1177/17470218251406631

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Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers

Liam Paul Satchell

, Jess Hall, Alex Jones

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Swansea University Author: Alex Jones

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© Experimental Psychology Society 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
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DOI (Published version): 10.1177/17470218251406631

Abstract

Person perception research predominantly focuses on faces as stimuli, and less attention is paid to full-body, moving, stimulus people. Nor how our social perceptions might affect the way we observe unknown people. Here, we present two exploratory studies and a registered third. In Study One, 27 jud...

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Published in:	Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
ISSN:	1747-0218 1747-0226
Published:	SAGE Publications 2025
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71203

first_indexed	2026-01-07T15:43:02Z
last_indexed	2026-01-08T05:22:11Z
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spelling	2026-01-07T15:44:44.9737303 v2 71203 2026-01-07 Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers a24e1e2a89b0a9120fe03b481a629edd 0000-0003-3600-3644 Alex Jones Alex Jones true false 2026-01-07 PSYS Person perception research predominantly focuses on faces as stimuli, and less attention is paid to full-body, moving, stimulus people. Nor how our social perceptions might affect the way we observe unknown people. Here, we present two exploratory studies and a registered third. In Study One, 27 judges observed 12 videos of female targets walking and rated ‘threat’, ‘attractiveness’ and ‘masculinity’. In Study Two, 30 judges observed 22 male and female targets in the same format with the same ratings. The registered Study Three included 48 judges observing the same 22 stimuli. Judges had their attention to target faces recorded with an eyetracker. In all studies time spent observing the targets’ heads decreased over time. In Study One, ratings were associated with time spent observing the targets’ head and these effects changed with observation over time. In Study Two no effects were found. Study Three found weak effects opposing Study One. We find overall meta-evidence of masculinity and attractiveness affecting attention to the faces of unknown others, but the individual study findings were highly inconsistent. Our findings draw attention to the risks of interpreting from an individual study and reflect the benefit of internal registered replications. Journal Article Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 0 SAGE Publications 1747-0218 1747-0226 gait, threat, attractiveness, masculinity-femininity, eyetracking, person perception 28 11 2025 2025-11-28 10.1177/17470218251406631 COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee 2026-01-07T15:44:44.9737303 2026-01-07T15:37:08.1706335 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Liam Paul Satchell 0000-0002-8805-4884 1 Jess Hall 2 Alex Jones 0000-0003-3600-3644 3 71203__35911__994928b65f8c47d48010209bfabc51e2.pdf 71203.VOR.pdf 2026-01-07T15:41:27.3967774 Output 664997 application/pdf Version of Record true © Experimental Psychology Society 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers
spellingShingle	Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers Alex Jones
title_short	Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers
title_full	Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers
title_fullStr	Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers
title_full_unstemmed	Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers
title_sort	Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers
author_id_str_mv	a24e1e2a89b0a9120fe03b481a629edd
author_id_fullname_str_mv	a24e1e2a89b0a9120fe03b481a629edd_***_Alex Jones
author	Alex Jones
author2	Liam Paul Satchell Jess Hall Alex Jones
format	Journal article
container_title	Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
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publishDate	2025
institution	Swansea University
issn	1747-0218 1747-0226
doi_str_mv	10.1177/17470218251406631
publisher	SAGE Publications
college_str	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_title	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_parent_title	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str	School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str	1
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description	Person perception research predominantly focuses on faces as stimuli, and less attention is paid to full-body, moving, stimulus people. Nor how our social perceptions might affect the way we observe unknown people. Here, we present two exploratory studies and a registered third. In Study One, 27 judges observed 12 videos of female targets walking and rated ‘threat’, ‘attractiveness’ and ‘masculinity’. In Study Two, 30 judges observed 22 male and female targets in the same format with the same ratings. The registered Study Three included 48 judges observing the same 22 stimuli. Judges had their attention to target faces recorded with an eyetracker. In all studies time spent observing the targets’ heads decreased over time. In Study One, ratings were associated with time spent observing the targets’ head and these effects changed with observation over time. In Study Two no effects were found. Study Three found weak effects opposing Study One. We find overall meta-evidence of masculinity and attractiveness affecting attention to the faces of unknown others, but the individual study findings were highly inconsistent. Our findings draw attention to the risks of interpreting from an individual study and reflect the benefit of internal registered replications.
published_date	2025-11-28T05:33:29Z
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Do We Look at a Threatening Person’s Face? The Relationship Between Perception and Observation of Walking Strangers

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