Background: Previous studies of face trustworthiness have often examined isolated face stimulus, ignoring the role of context.
Purpose: The current study used mouse-tracking technique and the seven-point Likert scale to examine the effect of emotional visual context on face trustworthiness judgment at the levels of the early evaluation process and final evaluation result.
Methods: Experiment 1 used mouse-tracking technique to study the impact of different contexts on the judgment of face trustworthiness at the early evaluation process. Experiment 2 used the seven-point Likert scale to study the effect of different contexts on the judgment of face trustworthiness at the final evaluation result.
Results: Experiment 1 found that when faces are embedded in threatening negative contexts, the mouse trajectories are more tortuous for trustworthy responses and straighter for untrustworthy responses than in neutral contexts. When faces are embedded in non-threatening negative contexts, the mouse trajectories are more tortuous for trustworthy responses but did not significantly differ for untrustworthy responses than in neutral contexts. When faces are embedded in positive contexts, the mouse trajectories are straighter for trustworthy responses and more tortuous for untrustworthy responses than in neutral contexts. Experiment 2 found that faces embedded in threatening and non-threatening negative contexts have lower scores and faces embedded in positive contexts have higher scores than in neutral contexts.
Conclusion: The results show that the emotional visual context significantly influences the judgment of face trustworthiness both at the levels of the early evaluation process and final evaluation result.
Keywords: face processing, trustworthiness, social perception, contextual processing, mouse-tracking