Core body temperature is associated with visual representations of social group members

Core body temperature (CBT) reflects a physiological state that may correspond with variation in social perception. In two exploratory studies, we examined whether individual differences in CBT correspond with visual representations of social group members. In Study 1, American participants generated visual representations of Arab faces using a reverse correlation task. A machine learning model predicted participants' CBT from the classification images they generated above chance levels. In Study 2, participants generated representations of novel ingroup and outgroup members. Classification images generated by individuals with higher CBT were associated with greater differentiation in trusting behavior between ingroup and outgroup members. Together, these findings suggest that physiological variation indexed by CBT corresponds with how individuals visually construct representations of social group members.