Perception of the identity of the person depicted in the photo and in the portrait of the face

Abstract

The study experimentally investigated the perception of the identity of the same person, depicted in a photo and in a portrait. Firstly, the evaluations of the individual psychologic characteristics of several historical personalities of XIX—XX centuries were analyzed. Secondly, the perceived structure of their values. It was found that similar evaluations of personality traits occur in perception of different images of the same face. While evaluating portraits, the participant used more diverse words, number of characteristics and performed the task longer. Evaluations of our participants and contemporaries of demonstrated personalities matched each other. The means of evaluations of differences in perception of the values of artistic and documentary images of the same person were not significantly different. Reconstruction of personalities’ identity via their face images is based on social roles attached to them, rather than on the artistic or documentary ways of their representation.