Interpreting President Barack Obama's Facial Displays of Emotion: Revisiting the Dartmouth Group

Charismatic presidents like John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and now Barack Obama have been able to overcome stereotype‐based barriers to political power by connecting emotionally with viewers, particularly through their nonverbal skills. In this study we focus on the facial displays of emotion by President Obama and how participants interpret them. This study builds upon the pioneering research of the Dartmouth Group concerning response to displays of happiness‐reassurance by political leaders. It will first replicate and extend upon existing research by using Ekman and Friesen's Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to characterize facial displays by President Obama, specifically three neutral displays and three different types of smiles. Second, this study replicates research carried out over two decades ago concerning individual differences in sex, ethnicity, and age cohort on response to political candidates culturally defined as Black. Video focusing on the head and torso were FACS coded and presented in a web‐based experiment to 79 participants working at a southern institution of higher education. The participants identified the emotions felt by President Obama on a scale ranging from “not at all” to “extremely” focusing on the basic emotion terms of: “Happy” and “Playful” (happiness‐reassurance) and “Angry” and “Disgusted” (anger‐threat). Findings suggest participants differentiate between subtle facial‐display differences and that there are differences based upon ethnicity and support for President Obama when they interpret his facial displays of emotion.     

Processing Faces and Facial Expressions

This paper reviews processing of facial identity and expressions. The issue of independence of these two systems for these tasks has been addressed from different approaches over the past 25 years. More recently, neuroimaging techniques have provided researchers with new tools to investigate how facial information is processed in the brain. First, findings from traditional approaches to identity and expression processing are summarized. The review then covers findings from neuroimaging studies on face perception, recognition, and encoding. Processing of the basic facial expressions is detailed in light of behavioral and neuroimaging data. Whereas data from experimental and neuropsychological studies support the existence of two systems, the neuroimaging literature yields a less clear picture because it shows considerable overlap in activation patterns in response to the different face-processing tasks. Further, activation patterns in response to facial expressions support the notion of involved neural substrates for processing different facial expressions.     

Children's Ability to Recognize Emotions From Partial and Complete Facial Expressions

The authors investigated children's ability to recognize emotions from the information available in the lower, middle, or upper face. School-age children were shown partial or complete facial expressions and asked to say whether they corresponded to a given emotion (anger, fear, surprise, or disgust). The results indicate that 5-year-olds were able to recognize fear, anger, and surprise from partial facial expressions. Fear was better recognized from the information located in the upper face than those located in the lower face. A similar pattern of results was found for anger, but only in girls. Recognition improved between 5 and 10 years old for surprise and anger, but not for fear and disgust.     

Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotion by Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Interpreting and responding appropriately to facial expressions of emotion are important aspects of social skills. Some children, adolescents, and adults with various psychological and psychiatric disorders recognize facial expressions less proficiently than their peers in the general population. We wished to determine if such deficits existed in a group of 133 children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The subjects were receiving in-patient psychiatric services for at least one of substance-related disorders, adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders or disruptive behavior disorders. After being read stories describing various emotional reactions, all subjects were tested for their ability to recognize the 6 basic facial expressions of emotion depicted in Ekman and Friesen's (1976) normed photographs. Overall, they performed well on this task at levels comparable to those occurring in the general population. Accuracy increased with age, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, or clinical diagnosis. After adjusting for age effects, the subjects diagnosed with either adjustment disorders, mood disorders, or disruptive behavior disorders were significantly more accurate at identifying anger than those without those diagnoses. In addition, subjects with mood disorders identified sadness significantly more accurately than those without this diagnosis, although the effect was greatest with younger children.     

Perception and Emotion: How We Recognize Facial Expressions

ABSTRACT— Perception and emotion interact, as is borne out by studies of how people recognize emotion from facial expressions. Psychological and neurological research has elucidated the processes, and the brain structures, that participate in facial emotion recognition. Studies have shown that emotional reactions to viewing faces can be very rapid and that these reactions may, in turn, be used to judge the emotion shown in the face. Recent experiments have argued that people actively explore facial expressions in order to recognize the emotion, a mechanism that emphasizes the instrumental nature of social cognition.     

情绪与决策：躯体标记假设及其研究新进展

人类的决策被广泛认为是一个理性的和认知主导的过程,因此在决策研究中,任何形式的情绪都被避免。最近,一些神经科学的研究显示,情绪是人类决策中的一部分,它不可以与认知分析过程相分离,并且有些时候,情绪甚至在决策过程中起着重要的作用。躯体标记假设就提供了一个情绪如何影响人们决策的神经解剖和认知的框架,其核心为决策受躯体状态（或标识信号）所影响,躯体状态来源于生物调节过程,包括情绪和情感过程。该文章介绍了何为躯体标记假设,躯体标记假设的实验研究,以及研究中的新进展。     

Event-Related Potentials Related to Normal and Morphed Emotional Faces

S. Bentin and L. Y. Deouell (2000) have suggested that face recognition is achieved through a special-purpose neural mechanism, and its existence can be identified by a specific event-related potential (ERP) correlate, the N170 effect. In the present study, the authors explored the structural significance of N170 by comparing normal vs. morphed stimuli. They used a morphing procedure that allows a fine modification of some perceptual details (first-order relations). The authors also aimed to verify the independence of face identification from other cognitive mechanisms, such as comprehension of emotional facial expressions, by applying an emotion-by-emotion analysis to examine the emotional effect on N170 ERP variation. They analyzed the peak amplitude and latency variables in the temporal window of 120-180 ms. The ERP correlate showed a classic N170 ERP effect, more negative and more posteriorly distributed for morphed faces compared with normal faces. In addition, they found a lateralization effect, with a greater right-side distribution of the N170, but not directly correlated to the morphed or normal conditions. Two cognitive codes, structural and expression, are discussed, and the results are compared with the multilevel model proposed by V. Bruce and A. W. Young (1986, 1998).     

Positive and Negative: Infant Facial Expressions and Emotions

One path to understanding emotional processes and their development is the investigation of early facial expressions. Converging evidence suggests that although all infant smiles index positive emotion, some smiles are more positive than others. The evidence stems both from the situations in which infants produce different facial expressions and from naive observers' ratings of the emotional intensity of the expressions. The observers' ratings also suggest that similar facial actions—such as cheek raising—lead smiles to be perceived as more positive and lead negative expressions (cry-faces) to be perceived as more negative. One explanation for this parsimony is that certain facial actions are associated with the intensification of both positive and negative emotions.     

Recognition and Interpretation of Facial Expressions in Dysphoric Women

Two studies are presented that evaluate emotion recognition accuracy and interpretative processing of facial expressions in relation to depressive symptoms in women. Dysphoric women more often attributed themselves as the cause of negative expressions, more often made negative interpretations of others’ thoughts, and had more negative thoughts about themselves when viewing facial expressions. However, dysphoric women were not less accurate or rapid in recognizing facial expressions. An integrative model, the “levels of self-processing view,” is discussed as a synthesis of the results across studies. Limitations of the current studies and future research directions are discussed.     

Improving the Ability of Elementary School-Age Children to Identify Emotion in Facial Expression

The authors evaluated an intervention program developed to remediate children's deficits in reading emotions in facial expressions. Thirty children from 2 elementary schools in suburban Atlanta participated in 6 30-min sessions over 4 weeks in which they were taught to discriminate, identify, express, and apply facial expression cues. The ability to read emotion in facial expressions significantly improved for the intervention group compared with the control group. Improvement on identifying facial expressions was associated with increased feelings of lower social anxiety and higher self-worth for girls. Boys' self-concept was negatively related to improvement. On the basis of the results, the authors suggested that structured interventions like the present one could be used to improve students' nonverbal processing abilities within public school settings, but with some cautions regarding the impact of new learning for boys.     

Reduced-Frequency Concurrent and Terminal Feedback: A Test of the Guidance Hypothesis

In 2 experiments, the authors manipulated the frequency of concurrent feedback to discern the effects on learning. In each experiment, participants (N = 48, Experiment 1; N = 36, Experiment 2) attempted to reproduce a criterion force-production waveform (5 s in duration) presented on the computer monitor. Consistent with the guidance hypothesis, the results of Experiment 1 indicated very strong guiding effects of concurrent feedback and strong dependence on the feedback, as indicated by participants' extremely poor performance upon feedback withdrawal in retention. As predicted by the guidance hypothesis, dependence on the feedback was reduced as a result of reducing the frequency of the concurrent feedback. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that one can enhance learning by providing concurrent and terminal feedback on 1 trial, with no feedback on the subsequent trial. In that way, the strong guiding effects of concurrent feedback could be realized and the beneficial effects of terminal feedback could also be achieved.     

Visual-Field Bias in the Judgment of Facial Expression of Emotion

The left and right hemispheres of the brain are differentially related to the processing of emotions. Although there is little doubt that the right hemisphere is relatively superior for processing negative emotions, controversy exists over the hemispheric role in the processing of positive emotions. Eighty right-handed normal male participants were examined for visual-field (left-right) differences in the perception of facial expressions of emotion. Facial composite (RR, LL) and hemifacial (R, L) sets depicting emotion expressions of happiness and sadness were prepared. Pairs of such photographs were presented bilaterally for 150 ms, and participants were asked to select the photographs that looked more expressive. A left visual-field superiority (a right-hemisphere function) was found for sad facial emotion. A hemispheric advantage in the perception of happy expression was not found.     

Moral Feedback and Motivation: Revisiting the Undermining Effect

Social psychologists have evidence that evaluative feedback on others’ choices sometimes has unwelcome negative effects on hearers’ motivation. Holroyd’s article (Holroyd J. Ethical Theory Moral Pract 10:267–278, 2007) draws attention to one such result, the undermining effect, that should help to challenge moral philosophers’ complacency about blame and praise. The cause for concern is actually greater than she indicates, both because there are multiple kinds of negative effect on hearer motivation, and because these are not, as she hopes, reliably counteracted by implicit features of praise and blame. The communicative ideal that she articulates does point us in the right direction, but it requires further elaboration. Once it is spelled out, we find that realizing this ideal, in light of the empirical research, requires rethinking the role of verdict-like judgments within moral feedback.

The Perception of Four Basic Emotions in Human and Nonhuman Faces by Children With Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

Children who experienced autism, mental retardation, and language disorders; and, children in a clinical control group were shown photographs of human female, orangutan, and canine (boxer) faces expressing happiness, sadness, anger, surprise and a neutral expression. For each species of faces, children were asked to identify the happy, sad, angry, or surprised expressions. In Experiment 1, error patterns suggested that children who experienced autism were attending to features of the lower face when making judgements about emotional expressions. Experiment 2 supported this impression. When recognizing facial emotion, children without autism performed better when viewing the full face, compared to the upper and lower face alone. Children with autism performed no better when viewing the full face than they did when viewing partial faces; and, performed no better than chance when viewing the upper face alone. The results are discussed with respect to differences in the manner that children with and without autism process social information communicated by the face.     

Varieties of Anger: The Relation Between Emotion Terms and Components of Anger Expressions

Component theory (C. Smith & H. Scott, 1997) predicts that presence of component movements (action units) alters the decoded meaning of a basic emotional expression. We tested whether the meaning of the basic expression of anger varied when different components were present in the expression. Participants were asked to label variants of anger from Ekman and Friesen's Pictures of Facial Affect using 15 anger terms, and invariance of labeling was tested by manipulating the judgment task. Data were analyzed using consensus analysis, multidimensional scaling, and numerical scaling. Components did not result in consensus about fine distinctions in the meanings of the anger expressions. Varying the type of task strongly affected results. We believe this occurred because language elicits different categorization processes than evaluation of facial expressions nonverbally.     

情绪加工的脑机制研究及其现状

本文从情绪的效价载荷及其脑功能成像研究、面部表情的识别及其脑功能成像研究以及情绪的诱发及其脑功能成像研究等三方面介绍了情绪加工的脑机制及其研究现状。从现有的研究成果来看,大脑皮层在加工不同效价载荷的情绪时具有很大的重叠性;有关面部表情识别的研究表明,不同的神经环路负责调节对不同面部表情的反应;有关诱发的情绪的研究表明,前扣带回皮层在表征实验诱发的情绪时扮演着一个非常重要的角色。文章最后指出了情绪研究目前面临的一些问题,并指出在我国开展情绪的脑机制研究的重要意义。     

Facial reactions to fear-relevant stimuli for subjects high and low in specific fear

This study was performed to investigate whether subjects high and low in fear of snakes react with different facial electromyographic (EMG) responses when exposed to snakes. Two groups of subjects were exposed to slides of snakes or flowers. After the experiment they rated their fear of snakes on a questionnaire and based on these ratings they were divided into high and low fear groups. Facial EMG was measured from the corrugator and zygomatic muscle regions. As predicted the high fear group reacted with a facial response interpretable as a negative emotional reaction whereas the low fear group did not. This difference was specific to snakes because high and low groups did not differ in responses to slides of flowers. The results are consistent with the proposition that facial EMG technique is a sensitive tool to distinguish reactions between subjects high and low in specific fears.     

具体情绪及非依随反馈方式对自我妨碍的影响

该研究采用实验法考察了具体情绪以及非依随反馈方式对自我妨碍的影响。被试为104名大学生。结果表明：1）愉快组被试做出的决策型自我妨碍行为较少;恐惧组被试做出的回避型自我妨碍较多。2）两种非依随反馈方式对自我妨碍的影响没有显著差异。3）无论是决策型自我妨碍还是回避型自我妨碍,男生均高于女生。     

Social Adjustment,Academic Adjustment,and the Ability to Identify Emotion in Facial Expressions of 7-Year-Old Children

The authors aimed to examine the possible association between (a) accurately reading emotion in facial expressions and (b) social and academic competence among elementary school-aged children. Participants were 840 7-year-old children who completed a test of the ability to read emotion in facial expressions. Teachers rated children's social and academic behavior using behavioral rating scales. The authors found that children who had more difficulty identifying emotion in faces also were more likely to have more problems overall and, more specifically, with peer relationships among boys and with learning difficulties among girls. Findings suggest that nonverbal receptive skill plays a significant role in children's social and academic adjustment.     

自闭症幼儿的情感认知特点的实验研究

本实验采用3(组别)×4(基本情绪)×3(实验材料)×2(实验条件)的混合设计的方法对平均心理年龄24个月的6名自闭症幼儿和心理年龄与之相近的6名正常儿童和6名弱智儿童的情感认知特点进行了比较性的研究。实验结果表明:在“语言提示”条件下,自闭症幼儿的正答率远远低于正常儿童和弱智儿童,但在“表情提示”条件下,自闭症幼儿与弱智幼儿几乎没差距,在对“愤怒”和“惊恐”等情绪的认知中,正答率高于弱智幼儿。这意味着自闭症幼儿可能运用了其他的替代策略进行情感认知。