The Verbal Overshadowing Effect: Influence on Perception

T about an issue may not be the best way to reach a conclusion or an answer. It is a common practice to talk about things that are occupying the mind and when trying to reach a certain outcome. Individuals are encouraged to talk about their problems and express themselves so that others can help. But does talking about something change the way one views it? Recent studies have explored this question, and specifically how views of physical attractiveness can change with verbalization. What we consider to be facial attractiveness depends in part on whether we verbalize the perception, which is the ability to visually recognize and describe, before making a rating or decision (Valentine, 2004). Many people’s perception of attractiveness is magnified after consciously giving a description of what stands out to them and then giving a rating of attractiveness. A previously rated average attractive face may be shown to a participant and then the participant is asked to rate the face according to a given measuring scale. Accordingly, the ratings of the face should come out to be average. If the same procedure is done, but the subject is asked to give a description of the face prior to the rating, the rating will be affected toward an extreme. The verbalization impairs the participant’s ability to accurately rate the face (Schooler, 1990). Gender might also moderate a change as perception often varies greatly between men and women. This phenomenon is known as the Verbal Overshadowing Effect (VOE), the finding that recognition performance for certain stimuli is impaired if it is described verbally (Westerman, 1997). It is common to see the Verbal Overshadowing Effect in such situations as criminal description, face identification, voice recognition, eyewitness accounts and many others (Lane, 2004). For instance, a witness of a robbery may easily identify the criminal out of a series of faces without any verbalization. But if a police officer asks the witness to try and verbally describe the criminal without any facial stimuli present, the witness’s ability to later identify the correct criminal is reduced (Clare, 2004). VOE normally occurs when participants describe a non-verbal stimulus, such as a face, prior to a recognition memory test (Chichester, 2002), or when one’s perception exceeds one’s ability to describe it verbally. In other words, it’s difficult to explain in words but easily recognized. This study explored the effects of the Verbal Overshadowing Effect, as seen in non-verbal stimuli recognition, in the visual perception of facial attractiveness (Rhodes, 2006) and in the effects of gender roles on perception. A control group of 218 participants was shown two faces, one female and one male that had been rated at an earlier time by a panel of judges as “average” on a scale of attractiveness. They ABSTRACTThe current study aims to observe alterations on perception of attractiveness due to the Verbal Overshadowing Effect (VOE). University students (N=458, 178 males and 280 females) participated in a study where two faces were shown, one male and one female, for 5 seconds. The experimental group verbalized their perception of the face and then immediately rated the attractiveness of the face on a Likert scale ranging from 1-7. It is hypothesized that describing the face will influence the rating of attractiveness, and that gender will also influence perception. Statistical analysis supported the hypothesis and revealed significance in the factor of verbalization, and between males and females in the experimental group. There was no main effect for the factor of gender; however, a test for interactions revealed a significant main effect for females. Results are discussed in relation to gender differences and a general shift in cognitive process. Intuition 2008 Vol 4, 12-18