Emotions and Stereotypes About People with Visible Facial Difference
A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Cognition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 12
Special Issue Editors
Interests: perceptions and evaluations of people with visible facial difference: behavioral and emotional reactions; evaluation of personality traits and competences; eye-tracking; employment discrimination; intervention studies
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Visibly different faces frequently invoke prejudicial evaluations and negative emotional responses, which can be reliably replicated through a variety of research designs. Although studies soliciting explicit attitudes may be subject to social desirability bias, prejudice can still be detected using more subtle measures. The magnitude of prejudicial attitudes may be greater for visibly different faces than for other factors associated with prejudice including sex, race, age, and disability. Negative stereotypes of people with visible facial difference are still perpetuated in popular culture, and physical appearance is still used to judge and objectify people. There is some evidence that it is considered acceptable to discriminate on the grounds of physical appearance when other forms of discrimination would be challenged.
All these factors together highlight the importance of understanding the root causes of emotions invoked by, and stereotypes applied to, people with visible facial difference. Of equal, if not greater, importance is understanding both how people in general can be asked to challenge and to reconsider their views and what strategies individuals with visible facial difference can use to combat the disadvantages that they so often face in employment and social settings.
This Special Issue will focus on research that aims to further our understanding of the root causes of prejudicial reactions to people with visible facial difference and on measures to enable people with visibly different faces to combat the disadvantages that they may face. We welcome perspectives on the “view from the outside”, that is, how people with typical faces perceive people with visible facial difference. The “view from the inside” is of course equally valid and valuable but outside of the scope of this Special Issue.
Dr. Anna Stone
Dr. Angela Gosling
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- visible facial difference
- employment discrimination
- emotional response
- stereotyping
- implicit evaluation
- familiarization
- intervention
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