By Bruce Bower
In chimpanzees, as in humans, faces are personality billboards, a new study suggests.
People can usually tell whether or not a chimp acts dominantly and is physically active simply by looking at a picture of the ape’s expressionless mug, says a research team led by psychologist Robert Ward of Bangor University, Wales.
Consistent with earlier evidence from other researchers, Ward and his colleagues reported last year that volunteers can also accurately detect whether people are extroverted, emotionally stable, agreeable and imaginative by looking at pictures of their neutral-looking faces. Extroversion in people and dominance in chimps both relate to assertiveness and sociability, and both partly derive from an individual’s genetic makeup.