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Status is a salient social cue, to the extent that it shapes our attention, judgment, and memory for other people, and it guides our social interactions. While prior work has addressed the traits associated with status, as well as its effects on cognition and behavior, research on the neural mechanisms of status perception is still relatively sparse and predominantly focused on neural activity during explicit status judgments. Further, there is no research looking at the involvement of person-processing networks in status perception, or how we embed status information in our representations of others. In the present study I asked whether person-specific representations in ventral face-processing regions (occipital face area (OFA), fusiform face area (FFA)) as well as more anterior regions (anterior temporal lobe (ATL) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)) contain information about a person’s status, and whether regions involved in affective processing and reward (amygdala, ventral striatum) decode status information as well. Participants learned to associate names, career titles, and reputational status information (high versus low ratings) with objects and faces over a two-day training regimen. Object status served as a nonsocial comparison. Trained stimuli were presented in an fMRI experiment, where participants performed a target detection task unrelated to status. MVPA revealed that face and object sensitive regions in the ATLs and lateral OFC decoded face and object status, respectively. These data suggest that regions sensitive to abstract person knowledge and valuation interact during the perception of social status, potentially contributing to the effects of status on social perception. / Psychology

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This thesis has three key aims, firstly to explore the effects that perceived age and ability have on person perception. Secondly to discover how these two constructs add to the theory on person perception and thirdly, to test a new methodological approach to the study of person perception.

Abstract Objectification most literally refers to perceiving a person as an object. Research shows that when people focus on a woman's appearance, compared to her personality, she is perceived of as more of an object (e.g., lower in human nature traits). These objectification effects, however, rarely occur for male targets. Moreover, humans, unlike objects, are typically believed to have a soul, that is, some part of the self that outlasts the death of the physical body and extends into a post-mortem existence (e.g., Heaven). In turn, I hypothesized that women, but not men, would be perceived as having less soul when focus is on their physical appearance, and that this will be mediated by human nature traits. Partially supporting these hypotheses, in Study 1, males and females were perceived as having (marginally) less of a soul when focus was on their appearance; however, there was no effect of appearance focus on human nature ratings for male or female targets. In Study 2, using a different manipulation of appearance focus and measure of soul ratings, the same findings emerged. In Study 3, focusing on a woman's appearance elicited heightened psychological need for structure and worldview defense when evidence was provided that she had a soul, compared to when evidence was provided that she did not have a soul. This indicates that a woman having a soul is less coherent and meaningful than a woman not having soul when focus is on her appearance. The discussion centers on possible mechanisms for these findings, as well as why the effects were found for male in addition to female targets. Limitations, future directions, and implications are also addressed.

This thesis has three key aims, firstly to explore the effects that perceived age and ability have on person perception. Secondly to discover how these two constructs add to the theory on person perception and thirdly, to test a new methodological approach to the study of person perception.

Research on mate preferences suggests that men value physical attractiveness and youthfulness most in potential partners, whereas women value status and resources most in a potential partner (Buss, 1989). These differences in mate preferences have implications for the value men and women place on these characteristics (e.g. attractiveness and resources) in potential mates. A man’s attractiveness and financial resources both contribute positively to his mate-value, (Sprecher, 1989; Townsend & Levy, 1990). A woman’s attractiveness also contributes to her mate-value (Sprecher, 1989; Townsend & Levy, 1990), but the value of her resources is less clear. I expected that men’s evaluation of a woman’s financial resources would be dependent on her level of attractiveness. I hypothesized that a woman’s financial resources would add to her mate-value when she was highly attractive, but detract from her mate-value when she was typically attractive. In Study 1, a woman of varying attractiveness (typical vs. high) approached men on campus and delivered a speech that conveyed her future income (low vs. high). Men’s reported desire to join her focus group was used as measure of their impressions of her mate-value. Study 2 directly assesses participant’s romantic interest in targets of varying income (low vs. high) and attractiveness (typical vs. high) using a controlled laboratory method where both men and women evaluated a profile of a potential romantic partner. The results of both studies supported my hypotheses. This research provides insight into the complicated nature of a woman’s financial resources as part of her overall mate-value. / Graduate / 2019-06-30

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