Prototypical faces from samples of the population of a Brazilian region / Faces prototípicas provenientes de amostras populacionais de uma região brasileira

Abstract

The goal of this study was to generate male and female prototypical faces, by morphing technique, from faces of people who were self-declared as white, "mixed race" and black in Ribeirão Preto-SP. Each prototypical face was generated from 64 face images of volunteers. Another sample of volunteers judged the typicality of color/race of the prototypical faces and the faces that composed them. The results suggested a concordance between the self-declared color/race and the judgments, indicating that the prototypical faces are representative of their respective categories of color/race. Applications of the prototypical faces in studies of face perception and face recognition were discussed.

Keywords

• Prototypical face
• Face recognition
• Attractiveness
• Distinctiveness
• Typicality