Accuracy and Consistency in Social Categorization Across Context, Motivation, and Time

Photos provide a literal snapshot of a person in a particular context at a specific moment in time. Previous studies have found that people can accurately categorize others from single photos of their faces along various social dimensions, yet this research typically assumes that one photo of an individual representatively samples other photos of the same individual. Across four studies, we investigated this assumption by testing the consistency of perceptions of social categories (viz. sexual orientation and political affiliation) based on multiple photos of the same individuals. We found that judgments of social categories exceeded chance and significantly correlated across different photo contexts, across variability in targets’ motivations, and across time. These data supplement earlier work showing similar consistency for other types of social judgments. Thus, single face photos can consistently convey some aspects of an individual's appearance.