The Mark of Villainy

Why is it often so easy to identify the villain in a movie just by the way they look? Visual narratives exploit a mechanism that generates aversion towards people who look different. Being “different” by definition is in relation to a statistical norm, whether the difference concerns body size, skin color, hair styles, gender, visible physical disabilities, or facial anomalies. We often associate unattractive faces or faces with anomalies with poor character or negative personality traits. The evidence that most people harbor (implicit) biases against others who visibly differ from the norm is overwhelming, while people who approximate a statistical average within a population are regarded as beautiful and morally good. While we do not yet understand the (neuro-)biological and cognitive bases of these stereotypes, some recent neuroimaging evidence suggests that people not only pay greater attention to faces with anomalies but also simultaneously inhibit social and emotional responses.