THE INTROVERTED FACE

By: James Hamblinoct

Published: The Atlantic, October 21, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-introverted-face/381697/

Level of difficulty: **

BEFORE YOU READ

·         How do we form first impressions of people?

·          How reliable are these first impressions?

·         What are the long term effects of these first impressions?

NOW WATCH THE VIDEOS

·         Even children judge your looks  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfHdYidooqk

·         Smile! Appearing happy can make you look more trustworthy - and a wider face can make you seem competent http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3130387/Smile-Happy-people-appear-trustworthy-wider-face-make-competent.html

QUESTIONS

1.       What widely held belief seems questionable according to the writer?

2.       The purpose of the text is to try and discover whether ……………………………………………………………..

3.       What is the function of the following sentence: “But it’s predictably not all that simple”?

·         To provide transition

·         To indicate the writer’s opinion

·         To indicate the main argument

·         To introduce doubt

·         All of the above

·         None of the above

4.       Olivola seems to be suggesting that we carry our first impressions too far / far enough / not far enough.

5.       The widespread face-ism observed in society has serious and far reaching consequences as ………

6.       Olivola states “Fortunately for researchers, most Americans don’t know who most congressional candidates are”. Why does he say this? Use your own words.

7.       In the case of CEO’S, the effects of social bias could be dealt with by……………………………………………

8.       In the case of elections, there seems to be a positive correlation between ………………………………

9.       What does that message in the sentence “We need a lot of strong evidence before putting that message out there” refer to?

10.   Olivola describes the belief that “mankind is capable of judging personality based on the face alone as ……………………………………….He goes on to say that it is not only the fact that such judgments are wrong that is dangerous; people are also ……………………..

WRITING TASK

Use the text to write about the effects of face-ism and how to deal with it.

THE INTROVERTED FACE KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES

This interesting text focuses on a popular bias we may not have all thought deeply about and draws attention to its consequences. The activity should lead to a good writing activity and plenty of discussion.

1. That people can accurately guess a variety of personality traits and behavioral tendencies from portraits alone.
2. The findings elucidate canny human intuition or absurd misguided bias
3. All of the above
4. Too far
5. They have serious implications for how people are treated and their outcomes in life
6. Possible answer: Their prejudices don’t affect their voting if they don’t know what the candidates look like
7. Controlling for how the company was doing before they come on board versus after.
8. Facial competence and lack of political knowledge
9. The ability to draw accurate inferences from faces
10. A judgmental illusion; inconsistent