COMMENTARY
OVERGENERALIZATION EFFECTS IN PERCEIVING
NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR: EVOLUTIONARY AND
ECOLOGICAL ORIGINS
Leslie A. Zebrowitz
ABSTRACT: The three papers in this special issue provide novel applications of an
evolutionary approach to nonverbal behavior. While each analysis of reactions to
nonverbal cues has merit, it also is valuable to place these separate phenomena
within a broader framework than can encompass them all. The ecological approach
to social perception provides such a framework. It conceptualizes all of the reactions as overgeneralizations of responses that are adaptive in their original context,
and it suggests proximal mechanisms that can predict ecological variations in these
reactions.
KEY WORDS: overgeneralization, anomalous appearance; babyface; emotion; attunement; ecological; evolution.
Although evolutionary psychology has only recently been brought to
bear on issues in many areas of psychology, such as mate preferences (e.g.,
Buss, 1989), intelligence (e.g., Miller, 2000), and health (e.g., Taylor, Klein,
Lewis, Gruenewald, Gurung, & Updegraff, 2000), it has early roots in the
study of nonverbal behavior. This tradition is not surprising, given Darwin’s
theorizing about emotional expressions in man and animals (Darwin,
1872). However, the papers that appear in this special issue of the Journal
of Nonverbal Behavior take an evolutionary approach well beyond the domain of emotional expressions to consider its implications for reactions to
physical disability, facial structure, and facial angle. While there is considerable merit to the separate evolutionary mechanisms that are proposed to
account for these reactions, it is also valuable to place them within a
broader framework. Such a framework is provided by the ecological apLeslie A. Zebrowitz, Department of Psychology, Brandeis University.
Address correspondence to Leslie A. Zebrowitz, Professor of Psychology & Manuel Yellen
Professor of Social Relations, Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
02454-9110; e-mail: Zebrowitz噝brandeis.edu.
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 27(2), Summer 2003 䊚 2003 Human Sciences Press, Inc.
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proach to social perception that was originally proposed by McArthur and
Baron (1983) and subsequently elaborated by Zebrowitz (1990, 1996,
1997). Although the ecological approach has origins in evolutionary theory, it also considers proximal mechanisms that may be useful in explaining the individual and cultural variations in response to nonverbal behaviors in the current set of experiments.
The ecological theory of social perception draws on Gibsonian theories of object perception (e.g., Gibson, 1979; Shaw, Turvey, & Mace, 1982),
and holds that social perception serves an adaptive function either for the
survival of the species or for the goal attainment of individuals. An important component of this position is its emphasis on the perception of social
affordances—the opportunities for action or interaction that people provide. This concept is poetically captured by Koffka’s assertion that “each
thing says what it is . . . a fruit says ‘eat me’; water says drink me’; thunder
says ‘fear me’; and woman says ‘love me’ ” (Gibson, 1979, p. 138). Although Gibson emphasizes the objective reality of affordances, he also emphasizes their emergence from the interaction of qualities of the environment and qualities of the perceiver. A fruit affords eating by some
perceivers but not others, and a woman affords loving by some perceivers
but not others. For this reason, the detection of social affordances depends
upon the perceivers’ attunements—the particular stimulus information to
which they attend. Attunements may be innate or they may be conditioned
by the perceivers’ social goals, behavioral capabilities, or learning histories. Finally, perceptual errors may occur when an attunement to certain
information configurations is overgeneralized. According to the ecological
theory of social perception, the nonverbal behaviors that would give rise to
such overgeneralization effects are those that reveal affordances that are
highly adaptive for the perceiver to detect. These include qualities that are
correlated with age, emotion, health, species, and identity. Each of these
qualities provides valid information about affordances and each may be
overgeneralized to those whose nonverbal behaviors resemble a particular
age level, emotional state, health status, species, or individual (Zebrowitz,
1996, 1997; Zebrowitz & Collins, 1997; Zebrowitz, Fellous, Mignault, &
Andreoletti, in press).
In this issue, Park, Faulkner, and Schaller show that responses to individuals who are physically disabled are highly associated with responses to
disease—disabled individuals are perceived to ‘afford’ contagion. These
results are consistent with the sickness similarities principle and its corollary, the anomalous face overgeneralization hypothesis (Zebrowitz, 1996,
1997; Zebrowitz & Collins, 1997; Zebrowitz et al., in press). According to
these principles, the evolutionary and social importance of avoiding those
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with communicable diseases and mating with those who are genetically fit
may have produced a strong preparedness to respond to nonverbal cues to
low fitness that is overgeneralized to individuals whose appearance is in
some way anomalous. As Park et al. note, the consequences of such overgeneralized ‘false positive’ responses are less maladaptive than those that
would result from a failure to respond appropriately to actual contagion or
low fitness cues, a ‘false negative’.
Keating, Randall, Kendrick, and Gutshall show that adults with neotenous facial features afford helping. These results are consistent with the
babyface overgeneralization hypothesis that the evolutionary and social
importance of behaving appropriately to babies has produced a strong preparedness to respond to their distinctive appearance qualities that is overgeneralized to individuals whose appearance merely resembles a baby (cf.
Montepare & Zebrowitz (1998) for a comprehensive review of pertinent
literature).1 The errors shown in this overgeneralization effect are assumed
to occur because they are less maladaptive than those that might result
from a failure to respond appropriately to babies.
Mignault and Chaudhuri show that adults with heads tilted backward
are perceived as more likely to be experiencing the superiority emotions of
contempt and pride than those with heads tilted forward, who are more
likely to be perceived as experiencing the inferiority emotions of shame,
embarrassment, and guilt. These results are consistent with the emotion
overgeneralization hypothesis that the evolutionary and social importance
of detecting emotion may have produced a strong preparedness to respond
to the nonverbal information that reveals particular emotions that is overgeneralized to individuals whose nonverbal cues in some way resemble an
emotional expression (Zebrowitz, 1996, 1997; Zebrowitz & Collins, 1997;
Zebrowitz & Fellous, 2001). Once again, the errors shown in this overgeneralization effect are assumed to occur because they are less maladaptive than those that might result from a failure to respond appropriately to
actual emotions.
The interesting moderators of overgeneralized responding to anomalous physical cues and neonatal cues reported in this issue also may be
framed within the ecological theory of social perception. In particular, the
effects of contextual salience manipulations as well as cross-cultural variations and individual differences all can be construed as reflecting variations
in perceptual attunements. The ecological theory specifies three possible
origins of such variations. They may reflect behavioral capabilities (the affordance that exists for the perceiver). For example, an ‘Untouchable’ may
not perceive a Brahmin with forward head tilt as ashamed and affording
ridicule. They may reflect the perceivers’ social goals (the affordance that is
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sought). Indeed, the social goals of men who wish to dominate others appear to make them more vulnerable to the babyface overgeneralization
effect; they show a greater preference for dating more babyfaced women
(Hadden & Brownlow, 1991). Finally, variations in attunements may reflect
learning histories (the affordance that is recognized). For example, learning
histories of people who live in cultures with a high incidence of parasites
appear to make them more vulnerable to the sickness similarities overgeneralization effect; they show a stronger preference for physically attractive mates (Gangestad & Buss, 1993; cf. Zebrowitz & Rhodes, 2002). In
sum, the ecological theory analysis of factors that attune people to certain
nonverbal behaviors holds promise for elucidating the proximal mechanisms that moderate and/or complement more general psychological adaptations that evolved to detect emotions, to foster successful parenting, and
to protect against the interpersonal transmission of parasites.
The ecological origins of variations in overgeneralized responding to
nonverbal cues may prove useful in elucidating the puzzling cultural differences reported by Keating et al. and by Park et al. as well as in predicting
others. For example, the greater helping provided by Kenyans to maturefaced Black men might reflect different social goals from those operating when helping Black women or Whites of either sex. In particular,
Kenyans’ responses to Black male Kenyan targets may reflect the overgeneralization of an adaptive tendency to help dominant authority figures
that overrides any overgeneralization of an adaptive tendency to help the
young. This analysis suggests that cultural variations in values, such as hierarchical vs. egalitarian ones (Hofstede, 1983), may prove to be useful moderators when predicting overgeneralized responses to neotenous cues.
Such cultural variations might also predict overgeneralized responses to
emotion cues. Perhaps people from highly hierarchical cultures would
show stronger responses to variations in head tilt than those from more
egalitarian cultures, where attunement to inferiority and superiority emotions is less important for adaptive functioning.
Like variations in social goals, variations in learning histories may contribute to cultural differences. As suggested by Park et al., individuals with
a European heritage may have a learning history that emphasizes interpersonal transmission of germs more than do those with an East Asian heritage. Although Park et al. did not report overall group differences in the
implicit disability-disease association, one might predict that a European
heritage would increase vulnerability to a sickness similarities overgeneralization effect. Learning histories also might moderate the reactions to head
tilt documented by Mignault and Chaudhuri. For example, the fact that
young children and short people typically view others who are looking
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down at them with heads tilted forward may weaken the correlation between head tilt and emotion information, causing them to overgeneralize
this meaning of head tilt less than do taller adults.
This commentary is not meant to argue that the ecological theory of
social perception provides a better explanation for the data reported in the
articles in this special issue than the authors have provided. Rather, the
goal is to offer a broader theory that can predict reactions to a wide range
of nonverbal cues, all of which reflect the overgeneralization of responses
that are adaptive in their original context, and that also can predict ecological variations in those reactions. The ecological theory of social perception differs from more narrow evolutionary accounts in two important
ways. First, overgeneralized reactions to particular nonverbal cues are not
limited to those that have served species survival, but may also include
those that have served individual goal attainment. Second, ecological theory provides the useful proximal mechanisms of social goals, behavioral
capabilities, and learning histories that may prove fruitful in attempts to
explain individual and cultural variations in overgeneralization effects even
when they are grounded in mechanisms that have some evolutionarily
adaptive value.
Note
1. Keating et al. contrast their results with earlier evidence that they construe to demonstrate
that babyfaced adults are more likely to help others, namely the finding that more babyfaced adults were favored for jobs as childcare providers or loan counselors, and babyfaced women were in fact more likely to occupy such jobs (Collins & Zebrowitz, 1995;
Zebrowitz, Tennenbaum, & Goldstein, 1991). However, these findings were not originally
interpreted as revealing a tendency for babyfaced adults to be seen as more helpful.
Rather, they were interpreted as revealing a tendency for babyfaced adults to be advantaged when seeking jobs that require the childlike warmth and submissiveness that they
are perceived to afford. This interpretation is highly consistent with Keating et al.’s conclusion that neotenous facial characteristics convey an affiliative, submissive message.
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