@article{ledrou-paquetFacialInformationUnderlying2026,

title = {The facial information underlying economic decision-making},

author = {V. Ledrou-Paquet and D. Fiset and M. Carré and J. Guérette and C. Blais},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105020458633?origin=resultslist},

doi = {10.1177/03010066251387848},

issn = {03010066 (ISSN)},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-01-01},

journal = {Perception},

volume = {55},

number = {3},

pages = {243–265},

publisher = {SAGE Publications Ltd},

abstract = {Faces are rapidly and automatically assessed on multiple social dimensions, including trustworthiness. The high inter-rater agreement on this social judgment suggests a systematic association between facial appearance and perceived trustworthiness. The facial information used by observers during explicit trustworthiness judgments has been studied before. However, it remains unknown whether the same perceptual strategies are used during decisions that involve trusting another individual, without necessitating an explicit trustworthiness judgment. To explore this, 53 participants completed the Trust Game, an economic decision task, while facial information was randomly sampled using the Bubbles method. Our results show that economic decisions based on facial cues rely on similar visual information as that used during explicit trustworthiness judgments. We then manipulated facial features identified as diagnostic for trust to test their influence on perceived trustworthiness (Experiment 2) and on trust-related behaviors (Experiment 3). Across all experiments, subtle, targeted changes to facial features systematically shifted both impressions and monetary trust decisions. These findings demonstrate that the same perceptual strategies underlie explicit judgments and trust behaviors, highlighting the applied relevance of even minimal alterations in facial appearance. These findings should be replicated with real faces from diverse demographic backgrounds to confirm their generalizability. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).},

keywords = {Adolescent, adult, Bubbles, decision making, face evaluation, face perception, Facial Expression, Facial Recognition, facial trustworthiness, female, human, Humans, Judgment, male, perception, physiology, psychology, Social Perception, Trust, trust game, trustworthiness, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{quintana_effect_2019,

title = {The effect of exposure to fear-related body odorants on anxiety and interpersonal trust toward a virtual character},

author = {P. Quintana and K. Nolet and O. Baus and S. Bouchard},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85074305238&doi=10.1093%2fchemse%2fbjz063&partnerID=40&md5=50ec319370e1688498abfa845c7ec343},

doi = {10.1093/chemse/bjz063},

issn = {0379864X},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Chemical Senses},

volume = {44},

number = {9},

pages = {683–692},

publisher = {Oxford University Press},

abstract = {A growing body of literature documents how exposure to another person's fear-related body odorants can increase one's own anxiety and interfere with processing of social information, such as facial expression and impression formation. Building on these results, we aimed to 1) test the hypothesis that exposure to fear-related odorant would affect impression formation through fear contagion and 2) verify whether these effects can be observed in an ecologically valid (i.e., virtual) environment. We proposed that exposure to fear-related odorant would cause receivers to feel more anxious, which in turn would lead them to report less trust toward an unknown virtual character. This study had 2 distinct phases. First, we collected perspiration odorants from the armpits of 12 male senders (i.e., the source of the odorant) during the viewing of either fear or joy inducing film clips. In the second phase, 53 women receivers were exposed to either a fear, joy, or neutral odorant (i.e., between-subjects design) by breathing through a gauze attached to a disposable respirator mask while immersed in a virtual bar. As expected, receivers exposed to fear odorants felt significantly more stressed. Mediation analysis also revealed an indirect effect of exposure on trust through anxiety. More specifically, the more anxious the receiver felt, the less she trusted the virtual character. Our results show for the first time that the impact of exposure to fear-related body odorants on negative interpersonal impression formation is mediated by the anxiety induced in the receiver. © 2019 The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.},

note = {Publisher: Oxford University Press},

keywords = {adult, Anxiety, article, body odor, body odorant, chemistry, controlled study, emotion, Emotions, exposure, Fear, female, fragrance, happiness, human, human experiment, Humans, male, metabolism, Middle Aged, odor, Odorants, pathology, Pleasure, priority journal, Sweat, sweating, Trust, unclassified drug, virtual reality, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}