Disrupting facial action increases risk taking.

Abstract

Sometimes risk involves taking actions that in and of themselves elicit emotion, often fearful emotions. Across two studies we test the hypothesis that preventing facial actions associated with fear and anxiety responses during a risky decision task leads to greater risk taking. We first demonstrate that while performing the balloon analogue risk task (Lejuez et al., 2002), individuals make grimaces associated with anxious anticipation. In Study 1 (n = 120), experimental condition participants had inflexible medical tape attached to their foreheads to disrupt movement of the brow, and they wore a mouth guard that interfered with actions involving the mouth. Tape was also applied to control participants' faces, but it did not disrupt facial action, and they did not wear a mouth guard. All participants performed the balloon analogue risk task, in which a greater number of balloon pumps signals more risk taking. Study 2 (n = 202) served as a replication and minor extension that added a second risk task also predicted to elicit anxious anticipation (i.e., a jack-in-the-box toy). As hypothesized, disrupting the activation of facial muscles led to more balloon pumps and lever turns. Our findings suggest that facial expressions modulate risk taking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).