How Social Power Affects the Processing of Angry Expressions: Evidence From Behavioral and Electrophysiological Data.

Entao Zhang,Xueling Ma,Ruiwen Tao,Huang Gu,Tao Suo,Yongxin Li

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.626522

Abstract

With the help of event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study used an oddball paradigm to investigate how both individual and target power modulate neural responses to angry expressions. Specifically, participants were assigned into a high-power or low-power condition. Then, they were asked to detect a deviant angry expression from a high-power or low-power target among a series of neutral expressions, while behavioral responses and electroencephalogram (EEG) were recorded. The behavioral results showed that high-power individuals responded faster to detect angry expressions than low-power individuals. The ERP analysis showed that high-power individuals showed larger P3 amplitudes in response to angry expressions than low-power individuals did. Target power increased the amplitudes of the P1, VPP, N3, and P3 in response to angry expressions did, but decreased the amplitudes of the N1 and N170 in response to angry expressions. The present study extended previous studies by showing that having more power could enhance individuals’ neural responses to angry expressions in the late-stage processes, and individuals could show stronger neural responses to angry expressions from high-power persons in both the early‐ and late-stage processes.

Highlights

The accurate recognition of emotional states from others’ facial expressions is important to coordinate social relationships (van Dijk et al, 2008; Yamagishi et al, 2012)
We sought to clarify at which stages of processing angry expressions both individual and target power may alter face processing. We investigated whether both individual and target power already modifies the early attentional processing (i.e., P1 and N1) and structural encoding (i.e., N170 and VPP) of processing angry expressions and whether possible modulations occur at the later emotional evaluation stage (i.e., N3 and P3)
The interaction between individual power and electrode was not significant, F (1, 38) = 0.823, p = 0.370 (p > 0.05), The interaction between target power and electrode was not significant, F (1, 38) = 0.764, p = 0.388 (p > 0.05). These findings indicated that anger expressed by high-power persons could decrease individuals’ processing of structural encoding of angry expressions, as indexed by N170

Summary

Introduction

The accurate recognition of emotional states from others’ facial expressions is important to coordinate social relationships (van Dijk et al, 2008; Yamagishi et al, 2012). Since angry expressions usually occur in social contexts, the processing of angry expressions should be influenced by the context in which they occur (Hess and Hareli, 2015; Hareli and David, 2017). The present research focused on whether and how social power affects the processing of angry expressions. Social power is the fundamental dimension of social relationships and social life, it is generally defined as one’s capacity to influence others by controlling resources (Keltner et al, 2003). There is ample evidence that social power has a wide range of consequences for one’s thoughts and feelings (Guinote, 2017).

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion