- Zebrowitz, Reading Faces ch 2&3
- Bruce and Young, In the Eye of the Beholder ch 5
- Donath, Mediated Faces (draft, do not circulate)
Read the papers and write about the following:
- Go to a public place and observe 4 different people you do not know. Write down what your impression is of each of them. How much is your impression drawn from their face, their clothing, their actions, etc? Concentrating on the face, what sense of the person do you derive from it? Can you articulate why? Do you think any of the "overgeneralization" processes that Zebrowitz describes played a role in your interpretation? What about other categorzation processes?
- When do you think seeing someone's face is important in a mediated environment? Why? In what form? What about videophones - do you think they will eventually replace or supplement the audio-only phone or is there a deeper reason why they have never been successful?
Please submit your essay by Sunday morning, and spend some time before class reading over the other essays.