Anthony M Evans
Biographic Data
| ID | 3596537 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anthony M Evans |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anthony M |
| FAMILY NAME | Evans |
| SIGNATURE | EVANS A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tilburg University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3345-5282 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 88 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Intuitive Thinking is Associated with Stronger Belief in Physiognomy and Confidence in the Accuracy of Facial Impressions
Physiognomy, the idea that a person’s character is reflected in their facial features, has a long history in scholarly thought. Although now widely regarded as pseudoscience in academic circles, recent work suggests that laypeople hold physiognomic beliefs and that belief endorsement is associated with support for facial profiling technology and other outcomes. Here, we build on previous work and investigate who believes in physiognomy. In four s…
Turning the Camera Off in Virtual Interactions Can Harm the Reputation
Virtual communication on digital‐meeting platforms is increasingly common in work, educational and other settings. One contentious issue concerns camera use. Some suggest keeping the camera off to mitigate ‘Zoom fatigue’, whereas others argue that keeping the camera on is a sign of dedication and engagement. Here, we conducted an experiment to examine the effects of camera use from two perspectives: the perspective of actors and observers. Partic…
A contest study to reduce attractiveness-based discrimination in social judgment
Discrimination in the evaluation of others is a key cause of social inequality around the world. However, relatively little is known about psychological interventions that can be used to prevent biased evaluations. The limited evidence that exists on these strategies is spread across many methods and populations, making it difficult to generate reliable best practices that can be effective across contexts. In the present work, we held a research …
The Effects of Partner Extraversion and Agreeableness on Trust
Existing research has documented the social benefits (i.e., higher popularity and liking) of extraversion and agreeableness. Do these positive reputational consequences extend to social dilemma situations that require trust? We found that people do not trust extraverts more than introverts. Instead, people’s trust decisions are guided by their partner’s level of agreeableness. In a trust game (Studies 1 and 2), individuals were more likely to tru…
Does dispositional preference for solitude predict better psychological outcomes during times of social distancing? Beliefs and reality
OBJECTIVE: People value solitude for themselves. Yet little is known about how people perceive dispositional preference for solitude in others. Does dispositional preference for solitude represent a protective factor from psychological distress during times of social distancing? And do laypeople have accurate beliefs about the role of preference for solitude? METHOD: = 1418) at the early and a later stage of the COVID-19 pandemic using experiment…
Cynical, But Useful: A Lay Beliefs Perspective on Cynical Leaders’ Ability to Prevent Antisocial Behavior at Work
Cynicism - the belief that people are driven primarily by self-interest - has been predominantly associated with detrimental consequences for individuals and organizations. Less is known about its potentially positive implications. We investigated whether lay people consider cynicism helpful in preventing antisocial behavior and therefore see value in cynical leaders. We found that people viewed cynical (vs. trusting) leaders as better at detecti…
Consensus and (lack of) accuracy in perceptions of avatar trustworthiness
In some online interactions, people use avatars to represent themselves and judge whether interaction partners should be trusted. However, little is known about human accuracy in perceptions of avatar trustworthiness. We conducted a two-stage study to investigate whether people are able to accurately judge trustworthiness in avatars. In Stage 1, participants created avatars using avatarmaker.com and made decisions as trustees in an incentivized t…
Extroversion and Conscientiousness Predict Deteriorating Job Outcomes During the Covid-19 Transition to Enforced Remote Work
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations around the world rapidly transitioned to enforced remote work. We examined the relationship between personality and within-person changes in five job outcomes (self-reported performance, engagement, job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover intentions) during this transition. We conducted a four-wave longitudinal study, from May to August 2020, of employees working from home due to COVID-19, …
Examining the accuracy of lay beliefs about the effects of personality on prosocial behavior
Prior research on personality and prosocial behavior has focused on actor‐level effects of personality by examining which personality traits predict individuals' prosocial behavior. But do lay people take into account others' personality when making predictions of others' future prosocial behavior? The present research was designed to answer this question. We focused on two interpersonal traits from the Big Five model, agreeableness and extravers…
Temporal dynamics of interpersonal trust during the transition to parenthood
Theories and laboratory research in social psychology associate parenthood with increased vigilance and distrust. Yet, longitudinal studies examining whether the transition to parenthood affects trust in real life are lacking. We examined the temporal dynamics of trust surrounding the transition to parenthood in a sample of adults followed for up to 12 years. We used discontinuous change models and propensity score matching to compare first-time …
Understanding the role of faces in person perception: Increased reliance on facial appearance when judging sociability
Faces play a central role in person perception. People spontaneously judge others' personality based on their facial appearance and these impressions guide many consequential decisions. When do people rely on facial appearance? In five studies (N = 1936, four preregistered), we test whether reliance on facial appearance depends on the goal of impression formation (i.e., on which trait dimension targets are evaluated). Trait impressions are, to a …
Leader decision speed as a signal of honesty
Expressions of doubt and trust in online user reviews
How do expressions of doubt affect trust in online reviews? Some previous studies find that people trust confident advisors more than doubtful advisors, whereas others find doubtful advisors are trusted more. We tested the effects of expressing doubt using Yelp data and in a controlled experiment: In Study 1, reviews from Yelp (N = 5.9 million) were coded using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) software. Reviews with doubtful language were…
Leaving the Loners Alone: Dispositional Preference for Solitude Evokes Ostracism
What are the interpersonal consequences of seeking solitude? Leading theories in developmental research have proposed that having a general preference for solitude may incur significant interpersonal costs, but empirical studies are still lacking. In five studies (total N = 1,823), we tested whether target individuals with a higher preference for solitude were at greater risk for ostracism, a common, yet extremely negative, experience. In studies…
Expressions of Doubt in Online News Discussions
Online discussions about politics and current events play a growing role in public life, and they can foster positive outcomes (e.g., civic engagement and political participation) and negative outcomes (e.g., hostility and polarization). The present research examines how the use of doubtful (vs. confident) language influences behavior in online discussions of current events. We examine the effects of doubtful language on comment popularity (i.e.,…
Social proximity and respect for norms in trust dilemmas
Trust is based on both rational considerations (outcomes and expectations) and moral considerations (respect for moral norms). We find that social proximity shifts the extent to which trust is perceived as a moral decision. People are more likely to trust similar strangers (partners they share personality traits with) because they feel it is the moral thing to do. In three studies, we found that partner similarity was associated with increased tr…
Ecological dimensions explain the past but do not predict future changes in trust
Concerns about declining trust and rising cynicism are recurrent in academic research and the media. Yet, prior studies focused on explaining, rather than predicting, temporal changes in trust. We tested prediction models of trust change across (up to) 98 countries over six measurement waves (from 1981 to 2014). We tested whether different ecological predictors (e.g., pathogen prevalence, population diversity, inequality) explain the past and pre…
Facial Appearance and Electoral Success of Male Italian Politicians: Are Trustworthy-Looking Candidates More Successful in Corrupt Regions
People rely on the facial appearance of political candidates when voting. Here, we examine whether the perceived competence, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of male Italian mayoral candidates ( n = 150) predict their electoral success. Building on situational leadership theory, we also examine whether associations between apparent traits and electoral success are moderated by contextual factors. Specifically, we test whether trustworthy-looki…
Social game theory: Preferences, perceptions, and choices
Building on classic game theory, psychologists have explored the effects of social preferences and expectations on strategic behaviour. Ordinary social perceivers are sensitive to additional contextual factors not addressed by game theory and its recent psychological extensions. We review the results of a research programme exploring how observers judge “players” (i.e., individuals making strategic decisions in social dilemmas) on the dimensions …
Can we reduce facial biases? Persistent effects of facial trustworthiness on sentencing decisions
Trait impressions from faces influence many consequential decisions even in situations in which decisions should not be based on a person's appearance. Here, we test (a) whether people rely on trait impressions when making legal sentencing decisions and (b) whether two types of interventions—educating decision-makers and changing the accessibility of facial information—reduce the influence of facial stereotypes. We first introduced a novel legal …
The effects of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness in online peer-to-peer markets
Multilevel Emotion Transfer on YouTube: Disentangling the Effects of Emotional Contagion and Homophily on Video Audiences
Why do connected users in online social networks express similar emotions? Past approaches have suggested situational emotion transfers (i.e., contagion) and the phenomenon that emotionally similar users flock together (i.e., homophily). We analyze these mechanisms in unison by exploiting the hierarchical structure of YouTube through multilevel analyses, disaggregating the video- and channel-level effects of YouTuber emotions on audience comments…
Examining the trade‐off between confidence and optimism in future forecasts
Confident business forecasters are seen as more credible and competent (“confidence heuristic”). We explored a boundary condition of this effect by examining how individuals react to the trade‐off between confidence and optimism. Using hypothetical scenarios, we examined this trade‐off from the perspectives of judges (i.e., business owners who hired analysts to make sales predictions) and forecasters (i.e., the analysts hired to make predictions)…
Gain-loss framing effects in dilemmas of trust and reciprocity
The effects of observed decision time on expectations of extremity and cooperation
The effects of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness in online peer-to-peer markets
Survey and behavioral measurements of interpersonal trust
Multilevel Emotion Transfer on YouTube: Disentangling the Effects of Emotional Contagion and Homophily on Video Audiences
Why do connected users in online social networks express similar emotions? Past approaches have suggested situational emotion transfers (i.e., contagion) and the phenomenon that emotionally similar users flock together (i.e., homophily). We analyze these mechanisms in unison by exploiting the hierarchical structure of YouTube through multilevel analyses, disaggregating the video- and channel-level effects of YouTuber emotions on audience comments…
Elements of trust: Risk and perspective-taking
Can we reduce facial biases? Persistent effects of facial trustworthiness on sentencing decisions
Trait impressions from faces influence many consequential decisions even in situations in which decisions should not be based on a person's appearance. Here, we test (a) whether people rely on trait impressions when making legal sentencing decisions and (b) whether two types of interventions—educating decision-makers and changing the accessibility of facial information—reduce the influence of facial stereotypes. We first introduced a novel legal …
The effects of observed decision time on expectations of extremity and cooperation
Examining the accuracy of lay beliefs about the effects of personality on prosocial behavior
Prior research on personality and prosocial behavior has focused on actor‐level effects of personality by examining which personality traits predict individuals' prosocial behavior. But do lay people take into account others' personality when making predictions of others' future prosocial behavior? The present research was designed to answer this question. We focused on two interpersonal traits from the Big Five model, agreeableness and extravers…
The development of trust and altruism during childhood
Facial Appearance and Electoral Success of Male Italian Politicians: Are Trustworthy-Looking Candidates More Successful in Corrupt Regions
People rely on the facial appearance of political candidates when voting. Here, we examine whether the perceived competence, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of male Italian mayoral candidates ( n = 150) predict their electoral success. Building on situational leadership theory, we also examine whether associations between apparent traits and electoral success are moderated by contextual factors. Specifically, we test whether trustworthy-looki…
Gain-loss framing effects in dilemmas of trust and reciprocity
A contest study to reduce attractiveness-based discrimination in social judgment
Discrimination in the evaluation of others is a key cause of social inequality around the world. However, relatively little is known about psychological interventions that can be used to prevent biased evaluations. The limited evidence that exists on these strategies is spread across many methods and populations, making it difficult to generate reliable best practices that can be effective across contexts. In the present work, we held a research …
Cynical, But Useful: A Lay Beliefs Perspective on Cynical Leaders’ Ability to Prevent Antisocial Behavior at Work
Cynicism - the belief that people are driven primarily by self-interest - has been predominantly associated with detrimental consequences for individuals and organizations. Less is known about its potentially positive implications. We investigated whether lay people consider cynicism helpful in preventing antisocial behavior and therefore see value in cynical leaders. We found that people viewed cynical (vs. trusting) leaders as better at detecti…
Temporal dynamics of interpersonal trust during the transition to parenthood
Theories and laboratory research in social psychology associate parenthood with increased vigilance and distrust. Yet, longitudinal studies examining whether the transition to parenthood affects trust in real life are lacking. We examined the temporal dynamics of trust surrounding the transition to parenthood in a sample of adults followed for up to 12 years. We used discontinuous change models and propensity score matching to compare first-time …
Understanding the role of faces in person perception: Increased reliance on facial appearance when judging sociability
Faces play a central role in person perception. People spontaneously judge others' personality based on their facial appearance and these impressions guide many consequential decisions. When do people rely on facial appearance? In five studies (N = 1936, four preregistered), we test whether reliance on facial appearance depends on the goal of impression formation (i.e., on which trait dimension targets are evaluated). Trait impressions are, to a …
Expressions of Doubt in Online News Discussions
Online discussions about politics and current events play a growing role in public life, and they can foster positive outcomes (e.g., civic engagement and political participation) and negative outcomes (e.g., hostility and polarization). The present research examines how the use of doubtful (vs. confident) language influences behavior in online discussions of current events. We examine the effects of doubtful language on comment popularity (i.e.,…
Examining the trade‐off between confidence and optimism in future forecasts
Confident business forecasters are seen as more credible and competent (“confidence heuristic”). We explored a boundary condition of this effect by examining how individuals react to the trade‐off between confidence and optimism. Using hypothetical scenarios, we examined this trade‐off from the perspectives of judges (i.e., business owners who hired analysts to make sales predictions) and forecasters (i.e., the analysts hired to make predictions)…
Survey and behavioral measurements of interpersonal trust
Elements of trust: Risk and perspective-taking
The development of trust and altruism during childhood
Reaction times and reflection in social dilemmas: Extreme responses are fast, but not intuitive
The effects of observed decision time on expectations of extremity and cooperation
Gain-loss framing effects in dilemmas of trust and reciprocity
Examining the trade‐off between confidence and optimism in future forecasts
Confident business forecasters are seen as more credible and competent (“confidence heuristic”). We explored a boundary condition of this effect by examining how individuals react to the trade‐off between confidence and optimism. Using hypothetical scenarios, we examined this trade‐off from the perspectives of judges (i.e., business owners who hired analysts to make sales predictions) and forecasters (i.e., the analysts hired to make predictions)…
The effects of facial attractiveness and trustworthiness in online peer-to-peer markets
Multilevel Emotion Transfer on YouTube: Disentangling the Effects of Emotional Contagion and Homophily on Video Audiences
Why do connected users in online social networks express similar emotions? Past approaches have suggested situational emotion transfers (i.e., contagion) and the phenomenon that emotionally similar users flock together (i.e., homophily). We analyze these mechanisms in unison by exploiting the hierarchical structure of YouTube through multilevel analyses, disaggregating the video- and channel-level effects of YouTuber emotions on audience comments…
Social game theory: Preferences, perceptions, and choices
Building on classic game theory, psychologists have explored the effects of social preferences and expectations on strategic behaviour. Ordinary social perceivers are sensitive to additional contextual factors not addressed by game theory and its recent psychological extensions. We review the results of a research programme exploring how observers judge “players” (i.e., individuals making strategic decisions in social dilemmas) on the dimensions …
Can we reduce facial biases? Persistent effects of facial trustworthiness on sentencing decisions
Trait impressions from faces influence many consequential decisions even in situations in which decisions should not be based on a person's appearance. Here, we test (a) whether people rely on trait impressions when making legal sentencing decisions and (b) whether two types of interventions—educating decision-makers and changing the accessibility of facial information—reduce the influence of facial stereotypes. We first introduced a novel legal …
Leader decision speed as a signal of honesty
Expressions of doubt and trust in online user reviews
How do expressions of doubt affect trust in online reviews? Some previous studies find that people trust confident advisors more than doubtful advisors, whereas others find doubtful advisors are trusted more. We tested the effects of expressing doubt using Yelp data and in a controlled experiment: In Study 1, reviews from Yelp (N = 5.9 million) were coded using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) software. Reviews with doubtful language were…
Leaving the Loners Alone: Dispositional Preference for Solitude Evokes Ostracism
What are the interpersonal consequences of seeking solitude? Leading theories in developmental research have proposed that having a general preference for solitude may incur significant interpersonal costs, but empirical studies are still lacking. In five studies (total N = 1,823), we tested whether target individuals with a higher preference for solitude were at greater risk for ostracism, a common, yet extremely negative, experience. In studies…
Expressions of Doubt in Online News Discussions
Online discussions about politics and current events play a growing role in public life, and they can foster positive outcomes (e.g., civic engagement and political participation) and negative outcomes (e.g., hostility and polarization). The present research examines how the use of doubtful (vs. confident) language influences behavior in online discussions of current events. We examine the effects of doubtful language on comment popularity (i.e.,…
Social proximity and respect for norms in trust dilemmas
Trust is based on both rational considerations (outcomes and expectations) and moral considerations (respect for moral norms). We find that social proximity shifts the extent to which trust is perceived as a moral decision. People are more likely to trust similar strangers (partners they share personality traits with) because they feel it is the moral thing to do. In three studies, we found that partner similarity was associated with increased tr…
Ecological dimensions explain the past but do not predict future changes in trust
Concerns about declining trust and rising cynicism are recurrent in academic research and the media. Yet, prior studies focused on explaining, rather than predicting, temporal changes in trust. We tested prediction models of trust change across (up to) 98 countries over six measurement waves (from 1981 to 2014). We tested whether different ecological predictors (e.g., pathogen prevalence, population diversity, inequality) explain the past and pre…
Facial Appearance and Electoral Success of Male Italian Politicians: Are Trustworthy-Looking Candidates More Successful in Corrupt Regions
People rely on the facial appearance of political candidates when voting. Here, we examine whether the perceived competence, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of male Italian mayoral candidates ( n = 150) predict their electoral success. Building on situational leadership theory, we also examine whether associations between apparent traits and electoral success are moderated by contextual factors. Specifically, we test whether trustworthy-looki…
Consensus and (lack of) accuracy in perceptions of avatar trustworthiness
In some online interactions, people use avatars to represent themselves and judge whether interaction partners should be trusted. However, little is known about human accuracy in perceptions of avatar trustworthiness. We conducted a two-stage study to investigate whether people are able to accurately judge trustworthiness in avatars. In Stage 1, participants created avatars using avatarmaker.com and made decisions as trustees in an incentivized t…
Extroversion and Conscientiousness Predict Deteriorating Job Outcomes During the Covid-19 Transition to Enforced Remote Work
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations around the world rapidly transitioned to enforced remote work. We examined the relationship between personality and within-person changes in five job outcomes (self-reported performance, engagement, job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover intentions) during this transition. We conducted a four-wave longitudinal study, from May to August 2020, of employees working from home due to COVID-19, …
Examining the accuracy of lay beliefs about the effects of personality on prosocial behavior
Prior research on personality and prosocial behavior has focused on actor‐level effects of personality by examining which personality traits predict individuals' prosocial behavior. But do lay people take into account others' personality when making predictions of others' future prosocial behavior? The present research was designed to answer this question. We focused on two interpersonal traits from the Big Five model, agreeableness and extravers…
Temporal dynamics of interpersonal trust during the transition to parenthood
Theories and laboratory research in social psychology associate parenthood with increased vigilance and distrust. Yet, longitudinal studies examining whether the transition to parenthood affects trust in real life are lacking. We examined the temporal dynamics of trust surrounding the transition to parenthood in a sample of adults followed for up to 12 years. We used discontinuous change models and propensity score matching to compare first-time …
Understanding the role of faces in person perception: Increased reliance on facial appearance when judging sociability
Faces play a central role in person perception. People spontaneously judge others' personality based on their facial appearance and these impressions guide many consequential decisions. When do people rely on facial appearance? In five studies (N = 1936, four preregistered), we test whether reliance on facial appearance depends on the goal of impression formation (i.e., on which trait dimension targets are evaluated). Trait impressions are, to a …
The Effects of Partner Extraversion and Agreeableness on Trust
Existing research has documented the social benefits (i.e., higher popularity and liking) of extraversion and agreeableness. Do these positive reputational consequences extend to social dilemma situations that require trust? We found that people do not trust extraverts more than introverts. Instead, people’s trust decisions are guided by their partner’s level of agreeableness. In a trust game (Studies 1 and 2), individuals were more likely to tru…
Does dispositional preference for solitude predict better psychological outcomes during times of social distancing? Beliefs and reality
OBJECTIVE: People value solitude for themselves. Yet little is known about how people perceive dispositional preference for solitude in others. Does dispositional preference for solitude represent a protective factor from psychological distress during times of social distancing? And do laypeople have accurate beliefs about the role of preference for solitude? METHOD: = 1418) at the early and a later stage of the COVID-19 pandemic using experiment…
Psychology (28 works) · Social Psychology (24 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (12 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (9 works) · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies (9 works) · Perception (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (8 works) · Personality (7 works)