From Nonverbal Cues to Perception: Personality and Social Attractiveness

Nonverbal behaviour influences to a significant extent our perception of others, especially during the earliest stages of an interaction. This article considers the phenomenon in two zero acquaintance scenarios: the first is the attribution of personality traits to speakers we listen to for the first time, the second is the social attractiveness of unacquainted people with whom we talk on the phone. In both cases, several nonverbal cues, both measurable and machine detectable, appear to be significantly correlated with quantitative assessments of personality traits and social attractiveness. This provides a promising basis for the development of computing approaches capable of predicting how people are perceived by others in social terms.