# The good, the bad, and the different: Understanding stigma towards people with facial differences

> **NIH NIH F32** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2021 · $73,430

## Abstract

The good, the bad, and the different: Understanding stigma towards people with facial differences
 Project Summary / Abstract
Movie villains are more likely than heroes to be depicted with facial anomalies (e.g., warts, scars), suggesting
filmmakers exploit intuitions that beauty and morality are related when creating villains. This observation raises
questions about the nature of this relationship: Are the facially different judged more harshly for moral wrongs?
Do they benefit less often from generosity? Is their mistreatment predicted by observers’ prosocial (e.g.,
empathic concern) or antisocial (e.g., disgust) emotional responses to them, since such emotions are known to
influence moral behavior in different ways? Or by dispositions that shape values relating to morality? Or by the
neural response to seeing facial anomalies? We recently found evidence for a “different-is-bad” bias against
people with facial anomalies that was linked to a neural marker of dehumanization (i.e., deactivation in medial
prefrontal cortex; mPFC). Facial anomalies may incorrectly signal poor health despite being unrelated to an
underlying illness, leading to feelings of disgust capable of motivating dehumanizing behaviors. This account is
consistent with recent evolutionary models of disgust suggesting it serves to limit pathogen exposure and to
regulate moral behavior. A recent meta-analysis found little to no effect of disgust on sociomoral judgments,
however, suggesting disgust alone cannot explain the different-is-bad bias. If this bias is causally related to
dehumanization, which manifests behaviorally as inhumane or cold treatment towards others, then its
presence should predict more antisociality and/or less prosociality directed at the facially different. The aims of
this project are: 1. To quantify dehumanizing behavior towards people with facial differences using
behavioral economic games. 2. To determine whether dehumanizing behavior is predicted by mPFC
deactivation. 3. To establish the necessity of the mPFC in giving rise to dehumanizing behavior using
the lesion method. After acquiring and norming photographs of faces with and without anomalies, a study will
be carried out in which participants will play economic games, purportedly with the people depicted in the
photographs, during fMRI scanning. In a separate study, lesion patients will play behavioral versions of the
economic games. The University of Pennsylvania is the ideal environment in which to conduct the proposed
research given the accessibility of the lesion patient database and the availability of state-of-the-art
neuroimaging facilities. The sponsorship team’s expertise in neuroeconomics and advanced neuroimaging
methods fits the applicant’s training needs perfectly, and opportunities for further development are available
through relevant coursework and seminars. Understanding how people think about and treat people with facial
differences could inform interventions aimed at educating the...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10241434
- **Project number:** 5F32DE029407-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** CLIFFORD I. WORKMAN
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $73,430
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-09 → 2022-09-08

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10241434

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10241434, The good, the bad, and the different: Understanding stigma towards people with facial differences (5F32DE029407-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10241434. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*