Configural face processing and its influence on the timeline of mentalization

Abstract

When mentalization fails, dehumanization can occur. Perceiving others as lacking fundamental mental states is the basic principle of dehumanization. Past research has already demonstrated the influence of both perceptual and contextual information on mentalization, while a recent line of research has tried to distinguish mentalization in a two-stage process: a mind detection phase in which we first identify a mind in others thanks to primary visual cues and a mind attribution phase in which both perceptual and contextual information are integrated to finalize the attribution of mental states to others. The current research aimed at deepening our understanding of the timeline of the mentalization process by specifically manipulating a perceptual, visual cue that has been related to dehumanization: the configural face process. This process was tested adapting the inversion effect that allowed us to show for the first time how and when this effect impacts and modulates the timeline of mentalization. Results indicated that the inversion effect impacted the early mind detection phase and resulted later in time in the elaboration of inverted human stimuli as more object-like.