People are excessively confident that they can judge others' characteristics from their appearance. This research identifies a novel antecedent of this phenomenon. Ten studies (N = 2,967, 4 preregistered) find that the more people believe that appearance reveals character, the more confident they are in their appearance-based judgments, and therefore, the more they support the use of facial profiling technologies in law enforcement, education, and business. Specifically, people who believe that appearance reveals character support the use of facial profiling in general (Studies 1a and 1b), and even when they themselves are the target of profiling (Studies 1c and 1d). Experimentally inducing people to believe that appearance reveals character increases their support for facial profiling (Study 2), because it increases their confidence in the ability to make appearance-based judgments (Study 3). An intervention that undermines people's confidence in their appearance-based judgments reduces their support for facial profiling (Study 4). The relationship between the lay theory and support for facial profiling is weaker among people with a growth mindset about personality, as facial profiling presumes a relatively unchanging character (Study 5a). This relationship is also weaker among people who believe in free will, as facial profiling presumes that individuals have limited free will (Study 5b). The appearance reveals character lay theory is a stronger predictor of support for profiling than analogous beliefs in other domains, such as the belief that Facebook likes reveal personality (Study 6). These findings identify a novel lay theory that underpins people's meta-cognitions about their confidence in appearance-related judgments and their policy positions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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你的样子就是你的样子：外观揭示了性格外行理论增加了对面部分析的支持。

人们过分自信，他们可以从外表判断他人的特征。这项研究确定了这一现象的一个新的前因。10 项研究（N = 2,967，4 项预注册）发现，越多的人认为外貌可以揭示性格，他们对基于外貌的判断就越有信心，因此，他们越支持在执法中使用面部分析技术，教育，商业。具体来说，相信外表揭示性格的人通常支持使用面部分析（研究 1a 和 1b），即使他们自己是分析的目标（研究 1c 和 1d）。通过实验诱导人们相信外表揭示性格会增加他们对面部分析的支持（研究 2），因为它增加了他们对基于外表的判断能力的信心（研究 3）。破坏人们对其基于外表的判断的信心的干预会减少他们对面部分析的支持（研究 4）。外行理论与对面部分析的支持之间的关系在对人格有成长心态的人中较弱，因为面部分析假定一个相对不变的性格（研究 5a）。这种关系在相信自由意志的人中也较弱，因为面部分析假定个人的自由意志有限（研究 5b）。外观揭示了性格外行理论比其他领域的类似信念更能预测对剖析的支持，例如 Facebook 喜欢揭示个性的信念（研究 6）。这些发现确定了一种新颖的外行理论，该理论支持人们对与外表相关的判断和政策立场的信心的元认知。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。