Brief Report Personality and behavioral outcomes associated with risk-taking are accurately inferred from faces Sandeep Mishra a,⇑ , Rajees Sritharan b a Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2 b Department of Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2 article info Article history: Available online 6 July 2012 Keywords: Personality inference Impression formation Risk-taking Future discounting Gambling Problem gambling Sensation seeking Self-control Impulsivity abstract Growing evidence suggests that people are able to accurately infer some personality traits and behavioral outcomes from facial photographs. However, little research has examined whether people are able to accurately infer personality traits or behavioral outcomes associated with risk-taking. In this study, we examined whether people were able to accurately infer, on average, others’ personality traits associated with risk-taking from facial photographs. We further examined whether such first impressions were associated with relevant and important behavioral outcomes—specifically, future discounting and gam- bling and problem gambling tendencies. Results suggest that people are able to accurately infer, on aver- age, some personality traits and behavioral outcomes associated with risk-taking from faces. Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction First impressions play an important role in guiding future social interactions with others, and a growing body of evidence suggests that first impressions allow for accurate judgments of others’ per- sonality traits (e.g., the Big Five; Naumann, Vazire, Rentfrow, & Gosling, 2009) and behavioral outcomes (e.g., CEO pay; Rule & Ambady, 2008). Facial inferences have also been associated with some laboratory-measured behavioral outcomes and tendencies (e.g., cooperation, trustworthiness; Stirrat & Perrett, 2010). These results provide some evidence suggesting that people are able to infer some personality traits and behavioral outcomes from facial photographs. However, little research has examined whether peo- ple can accurately infer personality and behavioral outcomes asso- ciated with risk-taking from faces. The ability to infer degree of risk-propensity in others has sub- stantial potential benefit in social interactions (e.g., avoiding costly encounters with others; Stillman, Maner, & Baumeister, 2010). Almost every decision people make involves some degree of risk, and risk-propensity is a key trait that underlies behavior in a wide array of domains involved in social life, including aggression, cooperation, conflict, sexual behavior, violence, and other forms of social decision-making (reviewed in Zuckerman (2007)). Furthermore, individual differences in personality traits associated with risk-propensity have been significantly associated with such measurable negative health outcomes as delinquency, teenage pregnancy, and problem and pathological gambling (reviewed in Mishra & Lalumière (2009)). A few previous studies have examined the degree to which peo- ple are able to infer some behavioral outcomes associated with risk-propensity from faces, including drug use history, arrest his- tory, physical violence, criminality, and aggression (Olivola & Todo- rov, 2010; Stillman et al., 2010; Valla, Ceci, & Williams, 2011; Carré, McCormick, & Mondloch, 2009). This research provides some ini- tial evidence suggesting that people are able to infer behavioral outcomes associated with risk-propensity from faces. To our knowledge, however, no research has examined whether people can infer from faces personality traits that are directly relevant to risk-taking (e.g., impulsivity, sensation-seeking, self-control). Furthermore, no research has examined whether people’s infer- ences of riskiness from faces are associated with laboratory-mea- sured tendencies associated with general risk-propensity (e.g., future discounting), or with important non-criminal outcomes of risk-taking (e.g., gambling and problem gambling tendencies, which have large health and economic consequences). An important behavioral outcome associated with elevated risk-propensity is future discounting. Future discounting describes a preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, distal rewards (e.g., a preference for $45 available immediately over $75 available in 30 days; Kirby, Petry, & Bickel, 1999). Laboratory measured rates of future discounting have been shown to be 0092-6566/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.06.007 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: mishrs@gmail.com (S. Mishra). Journal of Research in Personality 46 (2012) 760–764 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Research in Personality journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jrp