Interpersonal relationships moderate the effect of faces on person judgments

Previous research suggests that people form, impressions of others based on their facial appearance in a very fast and automatic manner, and this especially holds for trustworthiness. However as yet, this process has been investigated mostly in a social vacuum. without taking interpersonal factors into account. In the current research, we demonstrate that both the relationship context that is salient at the moment of all interaction and the performed behavior are important moderators of the impact of facial cites oil impression formation. It is shown that, when the behavior of a person we encounter is ambiguous in terms of trustworthiness, the relationship most salient at that moment is of crucial impact oil whether and how, we incorporate facial cites communicating (un)trustworthiness in our final evaluations. Ironically, this can result it? less positive evaluations of interaction partners with a trustworthy face compared to interaction partners with all untrustworthy face. Implications for research on facial characteristics, trust, and relationship theories are discussed. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.