Facial Pre-Touch Space Differentiates the Level of Openness Among Individuals

Social and cognitive psychology provide a rich map of our personality landscape. What appears to be unexplored is the correspondence between these findings and our behavioural responses during day-to-day life interaction. In this article, we utilize cluster analysis to show that the individuals’ facial pre-touch space can be divided into three well-defined subspaces and that within the first two immediate clusters around the face area such distance information significantly correlate with their openness in the five-factor model (FFM). In these two clusters, we also identify that the individuals’ facial pre-touch space can predict their level of openness that are further categorized into six distinct levels with a highly above chance accuracy. Our results suggest that such personality factors as openness are not only reflected in individuals’ behavioural responses but also these responses allow for a fine-grained categorization of individuals’ personality.