Face typicality-distinctiveness norms for the 304 front-view faces of the Glasgow Unfamiliar Face Database
Abstract
Face typicality and distinctiveness are key facial attributes that influence face recognition performance and the formation of social impressions. The present study aimed to provide normative data for these dimensions, offering a useful resource for face recognition research. Using a 7-point Likert scale, adult participants rated 304 front-facing faces from the Glasgow Unfamiliar Face Database (GUFD) for typicality–distinctiveness. Results indicated that the subjective rating method produced reliable estimates, with meaningful variability observed along the typicality–distinctiveness continuum. Highly distinctive faces were more sparsely represented in the database. These norms can support principled stimulus selection and improved methodological control in empirical research with faces.
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Francisco Cruz
Invited Assistant Professor
Francisco Cruz is an invited assistant professor in psychology, statistics, and methods at the Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa, and Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Europeia. Junior Consulting Editor at the Journal of European Social Psychology, 2025-present. Social Psychology Ph.D. on lay beliefs about science, supervised by Prof. André Mata (Universidade de Lisboa) and Prof. Tania Lombrozo (Princeton University), 2022-2025. Visiting Student Research Collaborator at Princeton University, 2023-2024. Society for General Psychology and Interdisciplinary Inquiry, Fulbright Portugal, and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia awardee. His research interests include lay beliefs about science (i.e., what people believe that science can or cannot explain and why), motivated beliefs in science (i.e., the contexts in which people are more prone to accepting scientific explanations), representation of social groups (i.e., how people integrate information to provide judgments on shared homogeneity vs. heterogeneity across group members), epistemic trespassing (i.e., when people provide judgments on domains beyond those in which they are experts), intuitive mind-body dualism (i.e., a natural tendency to see the world as split in material and immaterial portions), and face perception (i.e., features driving the advantage in recall for own- vs. other-race faces).