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Study Confirms That Cars Have Personalities
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Dec 02, 2008 12:54 AM
from the disney-is-unsurprised dept.
from the disney-is-unsurprised dept.
Ponca City, We love you writes "A study has confirmed that many people see human facial features in the front ends of automobiles and ascribe various personality traits to cars. Forty study participants assessed cars based on a system known as geometric morphometrics by viewing high-resolution, 3D computer reconstructions and printed images of 38 actual 2004-06 car models and rating each model on 19 traits such as dominance, maturity, gender, and friendliness, and if they liked the car. Study participants liked best the cars scoring high in the so-called power traits — the most mature, masculine, arrogant, and angry-looking ones. Researchers theorized that over evolutionary time, humans have developed a selective sensitivity to features in the human face that convey information on sex, age, emotions, and intentions. The lead researcher explained, 'Seeing too many faces, even in mountains or toast, has little or no penalty, but missing or misinterpreting the face of a predator or attacker could be fatal.'"
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Dupe (Score:4, Funny)
Study confirms that Slashdot has dupes [slashdot.org].
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
And bad summaries.
Re:Dupe (Score:5, Funny)
Further studies show that people ascribing animalistic qualities to inanimate objects are idiots!
Parent
Re:Dupe (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Dupe (Score:4, Funny)
And final studies confirm that only the parent was funny.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But even further studies shows that anthropomorphizing things makes them happy.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Only if those inanimate objects are naturally occurring. Inanimate objects created by other humans who may have (consciously or not) reflected those qualities in the object with their design may indeed deserve such recognition.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Yes, but each dupe has a different personality. Some dupes are happy, some are sad, some are confused, and some are on crack on crack on crack.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
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Of course... (Score:4, Insightful)
Those features are there by design. Marketing tells engineering to make it so.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Japanese cars seem to go for this. The most blatant example is the Miata.
http://www.pinkmiata.com/images/miata_face.jpg [pinkmiata.com]
There's another one I can find now where if you look at the headlights there's a smiley face. It's more subtle than the Miata, in fact you don't notice until someone points it out.
Which makes you wonder if the machines will exploit this sort of this thing when they take over, e.g. by making Terminators look non threatening.
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Funny)
Japanese cars seem to go for this. The most blatant example is the Miata.
And then there are badass cars like this. [dabbledoo.com] To misquote Firefly, 'A man drives down the street in that, people know he's not afraid of anything.'
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It would not be terribly difficult to make an electric vehicle out of most any current car. However, how would people be able to look at it and tell that it is an electric car and know that you are a wonderful person for saving the environment if it looked like a normal car? By making it ugly, then people can see it and know what great sacrifices you are making for th
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Funny)
Hello Kitty says you have to come with her if you want to live.
Parent
Re:Of course... (Score:4, Funny)
mature, arrogant and angry-looking
I don't see how those three are masculine traits. Obviously the authors never picked a fight with my woman.
Parent
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Insightful)
A car's personality is more than it's looks.
If it was only the look of the Miata that counted then it wouldn't have been such a success.
It's also about how it feels to drive and how well the design of the driver's area is done.
Parent
There's a reason some cars cost more than others.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure. So most German car manufacturers like Audi, VW, BMW and Mercedes will give you 10+ years of warranty on the chassis of the car because they all know that their cars will turn to rust in 5 or 6 years?
Now the body work, that's interesting... Most European cars nowadays will have more plastic for body work than anything else, if you look at Renault for instance, it's pure plastic. This is done to protect the driver and fellow road users on impact. The car will simply shred.
As an added bonus, since it's N
The weak submissive value face over engineering (Score:2, Informative)
Ironically the weak stupid submissive ones (known as conformists) are the ones that put a larger priority on the "face" than the engineering of the car. I believe it's called overcompensation. I for one am not afraid to drive a Toyota Corolla because I know it's a good value, will last forever, and for a car is less harmful to the environment than most other cars, and guess what I don't give a rats ass what it's "face" looks like.
Re:The weak submissive value face over engineering (Score:5, Funny)
I hope to someday be able to purchase an internationally-marketed mass produced automobile that speaks to my own sense of individuality. I will perhaps get a GMC Acadia, but with a towhook package, or a Volkswagen Golf with a turbocharged engine instead of normally-aspirated and an iPod dock. I will then most likely get a tribal tattoo. I'm young, tech-savy,cyber-edgy and stickin' it to society's traditional values!
Parent
Re:There's a reason some cars cost more than other (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don't they take a cheap car and put a sexy face on it? Because then nobody would buy the expensive cars.
Ummm, so couldn't someone who makes a cheaper car put a little bit more effort into how the car looks and make more money off it? Either through higher sticker price or increased sales?
Drive a car like a BMW or Porsche or whatever -- I mean really drive it like it's capable of being driven -- and you'll understand a little better why cars like that cost more. I know what comes next: Overpriced? Depends on who you ask.
Parent
Lipstick on a pig. (Score:2)
For the same reason they don't put a beak on a Datsun and call it a flying car. Sex sells but so do other things such as efficiency, cuteness, novelty, and plain old 'cheap-n-nasty-but-does-the-job' (such as the mini I once owned that had a large yellow smiley face covering the drivers door).
I'm sort of a half-caste nerd so here's something I've observed about superficial people: If you buy a car that is (say) a BMW wanna-be, then guess what,
Re:There's a reason some cars cost more than other (Score:4, Informative)
Not always. Take the original Mini or Beetle for example.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Because then nobody would buy the expensive cars.
Unlikely to be true. Cars are a status symbol. Cars are also the most expensive impulse purchase most will ever own. The combination of the two ensures the wealthy will continue to purchase cars simply because they are expensive - so long as the general public is also aware they are expensive.
Over the last three decades, some of the most expensive luxury cars have had some of the worst mechanical reliability problems and sales continued strong. The wealthy do
Difference between a porcupine and a BMW? (Score:5, Funny)
With a porcupine, the pricks are on the outside! // old joke // had 3 bimmers, miss them all
I'm getting a bit tired... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm getting a bit tired of Slashdot trolling its own users just to create discussions. Maybe this wasn't the best news post to comment on since only the title is bad but I'm sure most know what I'm talking about. Why can't you just make good titles and good summaries? Do bad ones really generate that many more clicks (ad views)?
That's not all (Score:5, Funny)
Cars not only have personalities, they have souls! Every morning I beseech the machine spirit of my car to start the engine and have it run smoothly and reliably. It's worked so far.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Interestingly enough, if you squint just right, my car looks like the Virgin Mary.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I don't believe that. I've seen your car mate, and it doesn't look like no virgin to me. It's well and truly f**ked
(btw before I get attacked for this, it is a joke ok)
Uh... Duh... (Score:5, Insightful)
And if people are going to see "faces" in automobiles, they are going to see expressions, too.
Did somebody actually get CREDIT for doing this study, which appears to be a phenomenal statement of the obvious?
Re:Uh... Duh... (Score:4, Insightful)
True, even the earliest Disney cartoons gave cars faces (well, they gave faces to just about anything but that's beside the point, my point anyway)
But come on, don't tell me car designers, at least nowadays, don't know perfectly well that people see faces in their cars... because they put them there!
The study should have been backward: do car designers make cars look to have human facial expressions?
The value of the study would have been the same though: null, void, zilch. God what a waste of time.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Sure. (Score:3, Insightful)
Cars may have personalities... (Score:2)
... but there's some vacuous humans I've met that don't seem to have one. I also wonder about the mental health of people who would fund and implement a "study" such as this.
I would have liked to RTFA... (Score:2)
But $34 to take a look is a bit much. :o(
I would be curious especially to see the images used, hoping to see a vehicle similar to mine, just to see what personality is ascribed to it.
Oh, well, no way I'm paying that much for just casual curiosity.
--
Tomas
All cars look like animals (Score:5, Insightful)
I did a study on cars and asked like 40 of my friends to rate a bunch of cars selected at random. The options for choices were "like a squirrel", "like a fox", "like a tiger", "like a bird", "like a bear" and "like a turtle." Without exception, everyone likened each car presented to some kind of animal. Therefore people think all cars look like animals.
Did anyone catch the flaw?
Now go back and look at the summary. All of the words given as choices in describing the cars are closely linked to personality traits. So of COURSE they will be perceived to have personalities if they are described in those terms!
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
AMC Gremlin (Score:2)
They do have personalities (Score:2)
Cars definitely do have personalities. My GMC pickup has all the personality of a donkey: it's slow and stubborn and doesn't want to work and no amount of coaxing (new fuel and ignition systems) will convince it to do what I ask. It also eats and drinks a lot but just barely earns its keep. It also poops a lot (rust)
The MR2 I had was that of a beapoo (a beagle/poodle mix) -- quick on its feet, cozy, cute, and nimble, and didn't eat or drink much. It was also somewhat fragile (a coworker hit it with his tru
"Little or no penalty"? (Score:2)
Tell that to people obsessing over a cucumber slice.
Car Face Expression (Score:3, Insightful)
The perceived personality that TFA talks about has little to do with a car's actual performance characteristics and more to do with how the car owner wishes to be perceived, at least to anyone who knows the first thing about cars. Round "open-eyed" headlights and a surprised mouth may suggest some sort of anime-style "passive femininity" to people who aren't familiar with, say, a Shelby Cobra [limit4000.net] or Ferrari Barchetta [blogspot.com], but eventually even the nonenthusiast consumer will learn that "angry aerodynamic eyebrow" headlights and "low-slung frowny grilles" can be just as easily applied to mediocre grocery-getting minivans as high-end sports cars. The face of one's car tends to say far more about its owner than it does about the car itself.
Look at the front of a Prius. [timothyhumphrey.name] Obviously not marketed towards macho leadfoot NASCAR wannabes, but look: The grille is clearly smiling at you, but the headlights connote a high-tech aerodynamic (albeit not unfriendly) robot, in contrast to the helpful eager puppy look of, say, a new Thunderbird. [weblog.com]
(For my (nonexistent) money, the new car that strikes the best balance is the new Challenger. [newdodgechallenger.net] The headlights are browed just right to look serious without being psychopathically aggressive, and in combination with the slightly smirking lower (intercooler?) intake the whole face looks confident without being obnoxiously threatening. It would have been a much better Bumblebee than that stupid Camaro.)
Ermness (Score:2)
So, wait... They asked people to rate how much various cars appear to have certain human traits, and then said "Look! They're describing the cars as having human traits!"?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They are doing research on what the front of that flying car should look like.
It IS the third millennium, I would like my flying car already.
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Get rid of the Holden and buy a 1998 Hyundai Sonata (2 litre manual 2nd series). I did and I don't regret it. You'll probably get a really good one for $3000, low kms, serviced etc. Fit a lawn mower in the boot too.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Fit a lawn mower in the boot too.
and another lawn mower engine in the front
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People worry way too much about what others think. The Humvee driver and yourself included.
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I wonder why that is...
Because they can control/own/dominate the car, so they're in control of this "angry/arrogant/mean" thing. If it was a guy rather than a car, they wouldn't feel so superior...