The association of character traits with face and body physiognomy has a long history that transcends cultures. In the present chapter we attribute these persistent links to the fact that variations in face and body physiognomy associated with age, sex, race, emotion, and fitness actually provide diagnostic nonverbal cues to a range of personal attributes. We discuss research supporting a set of overgeneralization hypotheses spawned by the ecological theory of social perception that builds on the diagnostic aspects of physiognomy. More specifically, this research reveals that psychological attributes that are accurately revealed by the facial or bodily qualities that characterize people of a particular age, sex, emotional state, race, or fitness level are overgeneralized to individuals whose appearance merely resembles those people. Consequently facial or body resemblance to a particular category prototype exerts a strong influence on trait impressions.