Positive facial affect looks healthy

A healthy appearance is linked to important behavioural outcomes. Here we investigated whether positive facial affect is a cue for perceived health. In study one, two groups of participants rated the perceived health or perceived happiness of a large set of faces with neutral expressions. Perceived happiness predicted perceived health, as did anthropometric measures of expression. In a second experimental study, we collected ratings of perceived health for a wide age range of target faces with either neutral or smiling expressions. Smiling faces were rated as being much healthier looking than neutral faces, confirming that facial expression plays a role in the perception of health. A third study investigating attractiveness as a possible mediator found that expression still had a significant direct effect on perceived health, after accounting for attractiveness. Together, these studies systematically show that facial affect plays a critical role in shaping our perceptions of health in others.     

When the smile is a cue to familiarity

The question discussed in the two following experiments concerns the effect of facial expressions on face recognition. Famous and unknown faces with neutral or smiling expression were presented for different inspection durations (15 ms vs 1000 ms). Subjects had to categorise these faces as famous or unknown (Experiment 1), or estimate their degree of familiarity on a rating scale (Experiment 2). Results showed that the smile increased ratings of familiarity for unfamiliar faces (Experiments 1 and 2) and for famous faces (Experiment 2). These data are discussed in the framework of current face-recognition models and are interpreted in terms of social value of the smile. It is proposed that the smiling bias found here acts at the level of the decision process.     

When the smile is a cue to familiarity

The question discussed in the two following experiments concerns the effect of facial expressions on face recognition. Famous and unknown faces with neutral or smiling expression were presented for different inspection durations (15 ms vs 1000 ms). Subjects had to categorize these faces as famous or unknown (Experiment 1), or estimate their degree of familiarity on a rating scale (Experiment 2). Results showed that the smile increased ratings of familiarity for unfamiliar faces (Experiments 1 and 2) and for famous faces (Experiment 2). These data are discussed in the framework of current face-recognition models and are interpreted in terms of social value of the smile. It is proposed that the smiling bias found here acts at the level of the decision process.     

Inferring the preferences of others from spontaneous, low-emotional facial expressions

The present study investigates whether people can infer the preferences of others from spontaneous facial expressions alone. We utilize a paradigm that unobtrusively records people's natural facial reactions to relatively mundane stimuli while they simultaneously report which ones they find more appealing. Videos were then presented to perceivers who attempted to infer the choices of the target individuals—thereby linking perceiver inferences to objective outcomes. Perceivers demonstrated above-chance ability to infer target preferences across four different stimulus categories: people (attractiveness), cartoons (humor), paintings (decorative appeal), and animals (cuteness). While perceivers' subjective ratings of expressivity varied somewhat between targets, these ratings did not predict the relative “readability” of the targets. The findings suggest that noncommunicative, natural facial behavior by itself suffices for certain types interpersonal prediction, even in low-emotional contexts.     

Avoidance of emotional facial expressions in social anxiety: The Approach-Avoidance Task

The Approach–Avoidance Task (AAT) was employed to indirectly investigate avoidance reactions to stimuli of potential social threat. Forty-three highly socially anxious individuals (HSAs) and 43 non-anxious controls (NACs) reacted to pictures of emotional facial expressions (angry, neutral, or smiling) or to control pictures (puzzles) by pulling a joystick towards themselves (approach) versus pushing it away from themselves (avoidance). HSAs showed stronger avoidance tendencies than NACs for smiling as well as angry faces, whereas no group differences were found for neutral faces and puzzles. In contrast, valence ratings of the emotional facial expressions did not differ between groups. A critical discrepancy between direct and indirect measures was observed for smiling faces: HSAs evaluated them positively, but reacted to them with avoidance.     

Familiarity breeds attraction: effects of exposure on the attractiveness of typical and distinctive faces

Several studies have shown that facial attractiveness is positively correlated with both familiarity and typicality. Here we manipulated the familiarity of typical and distinctive faces to measure the effect on attractiveness. In our first experiment, we collected ratings of attractiveness, distinctiveness, and familiarity using three different groups of participants. Our stimuli included 84 images of female faces, presented in a full-face view. We replicated the finding that attractiveness ratings negatively correlate with distinctiveness ratings. In addition, we showed that attractiveness ratings were positively correlated with familiarity ratings. In our second experiment, we demonstrated that increasing exposure to faces increases their attractiveness, although there was no differential effect of exposure on typical and distinctive faces. Our results suggest that episodic familiarity affects attractiveness ratings independently of general or structural familiarity. The implications of our findings for the 'face-space' model are discussed.     

哭泣表情面孔的注意偏向:眼动的证据

研究采用双选择Oddball范式和线索-靶子范式,并结合眼动技术,以微笑、哭泣和中性表情面孔为刺激材料,综合考察哭泣表情面孔在识别和解离过程中的注意偏向。研究发现:在识别阶段,哭泣表情面孔的识别正确率和反应速度都显著优于微笑表情面孔,进一步的兴趣区注视偏向分析发现,哭泣和微笑表情面孔的注视模式既具有一致的规律,又存在细微的差异;在解离阶段,返回抑制受线索表情类型的影响,在有效线索条件下,哭泣表情线索呈现后个体对目标刺激的平均注视时间和眼跳潜伏期都显著短于其它表情线索。表明哭泣表情面孔在识别和解离过程中具有不同的注意偏向表现,在识别阶段表现为反应输出优势和注视模式上的一致性与差异性;在解离阶段表现为有效线索条件下,对目标刺激定位和视觉加工的促进作用。     

Integrating gaze direction and expression in preferences for attractive faces

Few studies have investigated how physical and social facial cues are integrated in the formation of face preferences. Here we show that expression differentially qualifies the strength of attractiveness preferences for faces with direct and averted gaze. For judgments of faces with direct gaze, attractiveness preferences were stronger for smiling faces than for faces with neutral expressions. By contrast, for judgments of faces with averted gaze, attractiveness preferences were stronger for faces with neutral expressions than for smiling faces. Because expressions can differ in meaning depending on whether they are directed toward or away from oneself, it is only by integrating gaze direction, facial expression, and physical attractiveness that one can unambiguously identify the most attractive individuals who are likely to reciprocate one's own social interest.     

Differential priming effect for subliminal fear and disgust facial expressions

Compared to neutral or happy stimuli, subliminal fear stimuli are known to be well processed through the automatic pathway. We tried to examine whether fear stimuli could be processed more strongly than other negative emotional stimuli using a modified subliminal affective priming paradigm. Twenty-six healthy subjects participated in two separated sessions. Fear, disgust and neutral facial expressions were adopted as primes, and 50% happy facial stimuli were adopted as a target to let only stronger negative primes reveal a priming effect. Participants were asked to appraise the affect of target faces in the affect appraisal session and to appraise the genuineness of target faces in the genuineness appraisal session. The genuineness instruction was developed to help participants be sensitive to potential threats. In the affect appraisal, participants judged 50% happy target faces significantly more 'unpleasant' when they were primed by fear faces than primed by 50% happy control faces. In the genuineness appraisal, participants judged targets significantly more 'not genuine' when they were primed by fear and disgust faces than primed by controls. These findings suggest that there may be differential priming effects between subliminal fear and disgust expressions, which could be modulated by a sensitive context of potential threat.     

Facial attractiveness biases the perception of eye contact

Attractive faces are appealing: We like to look at them, and we like to be looked at by them. We presented attractive and unattractive smiling and neutral faces containing identical eye regions with different gaze directions. Participants judged whether or not a face looked directly at them. Overall, attractive faces increased participants' tendency to perceive eye contact, consistent with a self-referential positivity bias. However, attractiveness effects were modulated by facial expression and gender: For female faces, observers more likely perceived eye contact in attractive than unattractive faces, independent of expression. For male faces, attractiveness effects were limited to neutral expressions and were absent in smiling faces. A signal detection analysis elucidated a systematic pattern in which (a) smiling faces, but not highly attractive faces, reduced sensitivity in gaze perception overall, and (b) attractiveness had a more consistent impact on bias than sensitivity measures. We conclude that combined influences of attractiveness, expression, and gender determine the formation of an overall impression when deciding which individual's interest in oneself may be beneficial and should be reciprocated.     

It’s not just average faces that are attractive: Computer-manipulated averageness makes birds,fish, and automobiles attractive

Average faces are attractive. We sought to distinguish whether this preference is an adaptation for finding high-quality mates (thedirect selectionaccount) or whether it reflects more general informationprocessing mechanisms. In three experiments, we examined the attractiveness of birds, fish, and automobiles whose averageness had been manipulated using digital image manipulation techniques common in research on facial attractiveness. Both manipulated averageness and rated averageness were strongly associated with attractiveness in all three stimulus categories. In addition, for birds and fish, but not for automobiles, the correlation between subjective averageness and attractiveness remained significant when the effect of subjective familiarity was partialled out. The results suggest that at least two mechanisms contribute to the attractiveness of average exemplars. One is a general preference for familiar stimuli, which contributes to the appeal of averageness in all three categories. The other is a preference for averageness per se, which was found for birds and fish, but not for automobiles, and may reflect a preference for features signaling genetic quality in living organisms, including conspecifics.     

Facial attractiveness biases the perception of eye contact

Attractive faces are appealing: We like to look at them, and we like to be looked at by them. We presented attractive and unattractive smiling and neutral faces containing identical eye regions with different gaze directions. Participants judged whether or not a face looked directly at them. Overall, attractive faces increased participants' tendency to perceive eye contact, consistent with a self-referential positivity bias. However, attractiveness effects were modulated by facial expression and gender: For female faces, observers more likely perceived eye contact in attractive than unattractive faces, independent of expression. For male faces, attractiveness effects were limited to neutral expressions and were absent in smiling faces. A signal detection analysis elucidated a systematic pattern in which (a) smiling faces, but not highly attractive faces, reduced sensitivity in gaze perception overall, and (b) attractiveness had a more consistent impact on bias than sensitivity measures. We conclude that combined influences of attractiveness, expression, and gender determine the formation of an overall impression when deciding which individual's interest in oneself may be beneficial and should be reciprocated.     

Similarity ratings and confusability of lipread consonants compared with similarity ratings of auditory and orthographic stimuli.

Similarity ratings of pairs of lipread consonants were obtained using a 5-point scale. Matrices were constructed showing mean similarity ratings and confusions among stimuli. Both the similarity and the confusion data provide normative data useful for researchers in many areas. Lipread data collected here are compared with similarity ratings of orthographically and auditorily presented consonants collected by Manning (1977). These comparisons provide information about how stimulus similarity both within and between presentation formats may affect information processing of the three types of stimuli. These data are of special interest to researchers studying the visual processing of speech and the effect of format of presentation on recall.     

Social context effects on facial activity in a negative emotional setting

Evidence for A. J. Fridlund's (e.g.. 1994) "behavioral ecology view" of human facial expression comes primarily from studies of smiling in response to positive emotional stimuli. Smiling may be a special case because it clearly can, and often does serve merely communicative functions. The present experiment was designated (a) to assess the generalizability of social context effects to facial expressions in response to negative emotional stimuli and (b) to examine whether these effects are mediated by social motives, as suggested by the behavioral ecology view. Pairs of friends or strangers viewed film clips that elicited different degrees of sad affect, in either the same or a different room; a control group participated alone. Dependent variables included facial activity, subjective emotion, and social motives. Displays of sadness were influenced by stimulus intensity and were lower in all social conditions than in the alone condition. Unexpectedly, social context effects were also found for smiling.     

Perception and Expressing Habits of Smiling and Angry Expressions Modulated by Facial Physical Attractiveness in Asian Female Persons

In this study, we investigated the effects of facial physical attractiveness on perception and expressing habit of smiling and angry expressions. In experiment 1, 20 participants rated 60 photo subjects’ smiling and angry expressions of uncontrolled physical expression configuration. The results showed that for the angry faces, the perceived expression intensity and the expression naturalness in the attractive group were significantly stronger than those in the unattractive group; for the smiling faces, this attractiveness bias was not observed. In experiment 2, using artificial expressions made by an identical expression template, interestingly, the perceived expression intensity and the expression naturalness of the smiling faces in the attractive group were stronger than those in the unattractive group, while the impression strength of anger between the two groups was approximately the same. A comparison of the two observations suggests that facial physical attractiveness can enhance the perceived intensity of a smiling expression but not an angry expression, and that the inconsistencies between the two experiments are due to the difference of expressing habits between unattractive and attractive persons. These results have implications as regards the effect of facial attractiveness on the expressing habits of expression senders and the person’s development of social skills.     

The City Infant Faces Database: A validated set of infant facial expressions

Adults need to be able to process infants’ emotional expressions accurately to respond appropriately and care for infants. However, research on processing of the emotional expressions of infant faces is hampered by the lack of validated stimuli. Although many sets of photographs of adult faces are available to researchers, there are no corresponding sets of photographs of infant faces. We therefore developed and validated a database of infant faces, which is available via e-mail request. Parents were recruited via social media and asked to send photographs of their infant (0–12 months of age) showing positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions. A total of 195 infant faces were obtained and validated. To validate the images, student midwives and nurses (n = 53) and members of the general public (n = 18) rated each image with respect to its facial expression, intensity of expression, clarity of expression, genuineness of expression, and valence. On the basis of these ratings, a total of 154 images with rating agreements of at least 75% were included in the final database. These comprise 60 photographs of positive infant faces, 54 photographs of negative infant faces, and 40 photographs of neutral infant faces. The images have high criterion validity and good test–retest reliability. This database is therefore a useful and valid tool for researchers.     

Age-Invariance in the Asymmetry of Stimulus-Evoked Emotional Facial Muscle Activity

This study examined possible effects of aging on the lateralization of stimulus-evoked emotional facial muscle activity. Older participants (mean age 68.4 years) and younger participants (mean age 26.4 years) viewed slides of positive, neutral, or negative emotional content. While participants viewed the slides, bilateral electromyographic (EMG) recordings were obtained from the skin surface over zygomatic and corrugator facial muscles. The participants also made ratings of experienced emotional valence and arousal. Expected patterns of subjective experience and asymmetrical EMG activity were found in response to target stimuli. Greater corrugator muscle activity occurred during presentation of negative stimuli, whereas greater zygomatic muscle activity occurred during presentation of positive stimuli. Consistent with right-hemisphere specialization theories of emotion, left-sided facial EMG activity was consistently greater than that of the right side during presentation of emotional stimuli. However, neither subjective ratings nor EMG patterns showed a significant effect of age group. Such similar patterns of emotional response for the two groups suggest, that the aging process does not produce marked changes in stimulus-evoked emotional experience or in the pattern, magnitude, or lateralization of facial muscle activity associated with emotional states.     

Facial-expression affective attributes and their configural correlates: components and categories

The present study investigates the perception of facial expressions of emotion, and explores the relation between the configural properties of expressions and their subjective attribution. Stimuli were a male and a female series of morphed facial expressions, interpolated between prototypes of seven emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust, and neutral) from Ekman and Friesen (1976). Topographical properties of the stimuli were quantified using the Facial Expression Measurement (FACEM) scheme. Perceived dissimilarities between the emotional expressions were elicited using a sorting procedure and processed with multidimensional scaling. Four dimensions were retained in the reconstructed facial-expression space, with positive and negative expressions opposed along D1, while the other three dimensions were interpreted as affective attributes distinguishing clusters of expressions categorized as "Surprise-Fear," "Anger," and "Disgust." Significant relationships were found between these affective attributes and objective facial measures of the stimuli. The findings support a componential explanatory scheme for expression processing, wherein each component of a facial stimulus conveys an affective value separable from its context, rather than a categorical-gestalt scheme. The findings further suggest that configural information is closely involved in the decoding of affective attributes of facial expressions. Configural measures are also suggested as a common ground for dimensional as well as categorical perception of emotional faces.     

The influence of positive and negative facial expressions on face familiarity

Recent studies have shown that smiling faces are judged as more familiar than those showing a neutral expression (Baudouin, Gilibert, Sansone, & Tiberghien, 2000). Here we compare judged familiarity of unknown and famous faces when displaying a positive, neutral, or negative expression. Our results confirm a smiling familiarity bias, with positive-expression faces judged as being more familiar. Importantly, we also show significantly reduced familiarity for negative-expression faces, compared with neutral- or positive-expression faces. This difference in judged familiarity is not due to differences in expression intensity, but instead related to expression valence. Results are discussed with regard to the independence of facial identity and expression processing, and in terms of factors that influence face familiarity and memory.     

Intensity of smiling and attractiveness as facial signals of trustworthiness in women

Facial attractiveness is associated with a variety of positive social characteristics including trustworthiness. Variations in smiling, such as the appearance of the Duchenne marker and increased intensity of expression, have likewise been linked with positive judgments of trustworthiness. The study investigated the interaction of the effects of models' attractiveness and their smiling intensity on impressions of perceived trustworthiness. Participants rated the attractiveness and expressivity of neutral, low intensity, and high intensity smiling images of 45 women models. These images were also presented to a second group of participants who rated trustworthiness. Repeated measures analysis of covariance of the effects of attractiveness and manipulated smile intensity on trustworthiness indicated a main effect for smile intensity: increased smile intensity was associated with greater trustworthiness. Attractiveness also contributed to rated trustworthiness independently of smiling intensity. Results suggested there is an additional contribution of facial expression in creating social impressions of trustworthiness.