PhD project in How does information from faces and voices combine to inform judgments of witness trustworthiness and believability?

Human faces and voices convey a huge amount of socially important information, but we know very little about how these sources of information combine to inform social judgments. This interdisciplinary (Psychology and Linguistics) PhD studentship will explore judgments of speakers’ believability and trustworthiness from faces and voices, with a particular emphasis on forensic/legal settings (e.g. eyewitness testimonies and jury decision-making). The project would initially involve recruiting for, then creating, a database of audio-visual stimuli (e.g. people providing spoken statements). The database would then be used to run experiments which investigate the impact of facial and vocal characteristics (e.g. age, accent, stereotypicality, masculinity/femininity, attractiveness) and the content of testimony on perceived believability and trustworthiness. The findings of this research will make an important contribution to fundamental models of person perception (understanding how faces and voices are represented in the brain) and applied research (understanding mock-jury decision-making). The successful applicant will be supported by an experienced supervision team (Dr Harriet Smith, Dr Andrew Dunn, and Professor Natalie Braber), specialising in person perception, theoretical and applied experimental psychology and sociolinguistics. The student will be given training and support on stimulus generation (audio-visual data capture and editing), experiment design, and statistics. They will engage with best practice open science principles to maximise the transparency and accessibility of their research. The student will be supported to present and publish their findings at conferences, in peer-reviewed publications and to other relevant audiences (e.g. stakeholders, social media). The ideal candidate would have a background in linguistics or psychology, a keen interest in research, and a willingness to develop their skills and solve research problems under guided expert supervision.