Jun 28 2012: There is probably a reason in our evolutionary history why we use our eyes as one sense to evaluate whether another animal is a potential threat. For example, if a large someone comes running toward you looking angry and as if about to threaten your person with a large stick, are you going to judge the situation by its appearance and step aside, or will you ignore the visual cues and stand your ground without raising an arm to protect your face?
I ask this only because the obvious cases of not assuming character traits from things like beauty (can't tell a book by its cover and all that) are so well accepted that there remains little to discuss of them maybe?
Visual biases in general are likely to have some evolutionary history that makes such assessments often below consciousness.