1 June 2026

On 06.07.2026 (14:15-15:45, Von-Melle-Park 5, 3016) Dr. Anjana Lakshmi (Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Indiana Bloomington, USA) will give a lecture on "The Hyper-Typicality Effect" as part of the research colloquium.

Abstract: The perceived group typicality of faces plays a central role in social categorization and stereotyping (Blair et al., 2004; Eberhardt et al., 2006). Whereas it is commonly assumed that typical group members possess facial features that approximate the group average, recent findings from our lab challenge this assumption (Lakshmi et al., 2026). Specifically, we find that perceived group typicality is not anchored at the average face for a category but is instead systematically displaced towards faces with more extreme group-differentiating features. In this talk I will discuss this “Hyper-Typicality Effect" and explore underlying mechanisms involving group membership, societal norms and stereotypes.