University Library
  • Login
A gateway to Melbourne's research publications
Minerva Access is the University's Institutional Repository. It aims to collect, preserve, and showcase the intellectual output of staff and students of the University of Melbourne for a global audience.
View Item 
  • Minerva Access
  • Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences
  • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
  • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications
  • View Item
  • Minerva Access
  • Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences
  • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
  • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    How Academics Face the World: A Study of 5829 Homepage Pictures

    Thumbnail
    Download
    published version (690.0Kb)

    Citations
    Scopus
    Web of Science
    Altmetric
    14
    13
    Author
    Churches, O; Callahan, R; Michalski, D; Brewer, N; Turner, E; Keage, HAD; Thomas, NA; Nicholls, MER
    Date
    2012-07-17
    Source Title
    PLoS One
    Publisher
    PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
    University of Melbourne Author/s
    Nicholls, Michael
    Affiliation
    Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Document Type
    Journal Article
    Citations
    Churches, O., Callahan, R., Michalski, D., Brewer, N., Turner, E., Keage, H. A. D., Thomas, N. A. & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2012). How Academics Face the World: A Study of 5829 Homepage Pictures. PLOS ONE, 7 (7), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038940.
    Access Status
    Open Access
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11343/257479
    DOI
    10.1371/journal.pone.0038940
    Abstract
    It is now standard practice, at Universities around the world, for academics to place pictures of themselves on a personal profile page maintained as part of their University's web-site. Here we investigated what these pictures reveal about the way academics see themselves. Since there is an asymmetry in the degree to which emotional information is conveyed by the face, with the left side being more expressive than the right, we hypothesised that academics in the sciences would seek to pose as non-emotional rationalists and put their right cheek forward, while academics in the arts would express their emotionality and pose with the left cheek forward. We sourced 5829 pictures of academics from their University websites and found that, consistent with the hypotheses, there was a significant difference in the direction of face posing between science academics and English academics with English academics showing a more leftward orientation. Academics in the Fine Arts and Performing Arts however, did not show the expected left cheek forward bias. We also analysed profile pictures of psychology academics and found a greater bias toward presenting the left check compared to science academics which makes psychologists appear more like arts academics than scientists. These findings indicate that the personal website pictures of academics mirror the cultural perceptions of emotional expressiveness across disciplines.

    Export Reference in RIS Format     

    Endnote

    • Click on "Export Reference in RIS Format" and choose "open with... Endnote".

    Refworks

    • Click on "Export Reference in RIS Format". Login to Refworks, go to References => Import References


    Collections
    • Minerva Elements Records [45689]
    • Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications [1051]
    Minerva AccessDepositing Your Work (for University of Melbourne Staff and Students)NewsFAQs

    BrowseCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects
    My AccountLoginRegister
    StatisticsMost Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors