Person identification at airports requires the matching of a passport photograph to its bearer. One aim of this process is to find identity impostors, who use valid identity documents of similar-looking people to avoid detection. In psychology, this process has been studied extensively with static pairs of face photographs that require identity match (same person shown) versus mismatch (two different people) decisions. However, this approach provides a limited proxy for studying how other factors, such as nonverbal behaviour, affect this task. The current study investigated the influence of body language on facial identity matching within a virtual reality airport environment, by manipulating activity levels of person avatars queueing at passport control. In a series of six experiments, detection of identity mismatches was unaffected when observers were not instructed to utilise body language. By contrast, under explicit instruction to look out for unusual body language, these cues enhanced detection of mismatches but also increased false classification of matches. This effect was driven by increased activity levels rather than body language that simply differed from the behaviour of the majority of passengers. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

机场的个人身份识别需要将护照照片与其持有人进行匹配。这一过程的目的之一是找到身份冒名顶替者，他们使用长相相似的人的有效身份证件来避免被发现。在心理学中，这个过程已经通过静态的面部照片进行了广泛的研究，这些照片需要做出身份匹配（显示同一个人）与不匹配（两个不同的人）的决定。然而，这种方法为研究其他因素（例如非语言行为）如何影响这项任务提供了有限的代理。目前的研究通过操纵在护照检查处排队的人物头像的活动水平，调查了虚拟现实机场环境中肢体语言对面部身份匹配的影响。在一系列六项实验中，当观察者没有被指示使用肢体语言时，身份不匹配的检测不受影响。相比之下，在明确指示注意异常肢体语言的情况下，这些线索增强了对不匹配的检测，但也增加了匹配的错误分类。这种效应是由活动水平的增加驱动的，而不是与大多数乘客的行为不同的肢体语言。讨论了这些发现的含义和局限性。