Maayan Trzewik^1,2 (), Bat Sheva Hadad¹, Mayan Navon³, Tal Moran⁴, Hadas Wardi², Adi Langer², Carmel Sofer², Niv Reggev²; ¹University of Haifa, ²Ben Gurion University, ³UCLouvain, ⁴The Open University of Israel

Much research demonstrates that people tend to form more negative impressions of outgroup faces and more positive impressions of ingroup faces. Here we ask whether this motivated preference for the ingroup also operates in the opposite direction—namely, whether trait impressions themselves guide bottom-up social categorization, leading perceivers to classify faces as ingroup or outgroup members based on the positivity or negativity of the impressions they elicit. We tested this question using the Israeli Face Database (IFD), a novel database representing individuals from different social groups residing in Israel, including individuals of Jewish and Arab ancestries. A total of 1,336 Jewish participants residing in Israel and 1,199 American participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds rated IFD faces on a range of positive traits (e.g., trustworthiness, friendliness, intelligence) and negative traits (e.g., meanness, weirdness). In addition, Israeli participants rated each face’s likelihood of belonging to their ingroup (Jewish Israelis) or outgroup (Arab Israelis). Importantly, participants were not informed of the faces’ true group identities. Results show that faces rated higher on positive traits and lower on negative traits across both Israeli and American samples were more likely to be categorized by Israeli participants as belonging to their ingroup. Conversely, faces rated lower on positive traits and higher on negative traits by both samples were more likely to be categorized as outgroup members. Thus, social categorization judgments aligned with trait impressions independently formed by American observers, who were unaware of the ingroup–outgroup distinction and of any social categorization. These findings suggest that motivation to maintain a positive view of the ingroup and a negative view of the outgroup does not only bias evaluations of known group members but also shapes group categorization based on appearance. More broadly, the results highlight a bidirectional relationship between person perception and social motivation.