The current research investigated whether the two fundamental dimensions of social perception – warmth and competence – are applied to judgments of non-social, inanimate objects (e.g., furniture, equipment, company logos and symbols, etc.). Moreover, this work identifies unique key visual elements that reliably drive object perceptions along these two dimensions. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that objects with curved-shapes are associated with warmth-related concepts, whereas angular-shapes are associated with competence-related concepts. Study 3 showed that viewing a company logo with different contour shapes influenced people’s generalized competence versus warmth perceptions of that company. Finally, Studies 4 and 5 demonstrated that activating a heightened mental focus on competence versus warmth via a study manipulation of sense of power led people to prefer angular versus curved shaped objects. Together, these findings identify crucial basic visual determinants of warmth and competence associations, and demonstrate how objects’ specific shape signatures can systematically affect people’s perceptions, preferences, and sense-making at both implicit and explicit construal levels. More broadly, this research supports the notion that the same mental-schema forces drive both social and non-social judgments.
