The allure of status: High-status targets are privileged in face processing and memory

The current research tests the hypothesis that face processing is attuned to high-status faces. across three experiments,faces of high-status targets were better recognized than faces of low-status targets. in experiment 2,this memory advantage for high-status targets also extended to an attentional bias toward high-status targets and to stronger sociospatial memory (identity-location link) for high-status targets. finally,experiment 3 finds that high-status faces received more expert-style holistic processing than did low-status faces. this suggests that high-status faces also benefit more from the strategic deployment of expert face processing resources than low-status faces. taken together,these data indicate that perceivers strategically allocate face processing resources to targets perceived to be high in status. © 2011 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.