Abstract
People smile in various emotional contexts, for example, when they are amused or angry or simply being polite. We investigated whether younger and older adults differ in how well they are able to identify the emotional experiences accompanying smile expressions, and whether the age of the smiling person plays a role in this respect. With this aim, we produced 80 video episodes of three types of smile expressions: positive-affect smiles had been spontaneously displayed by target persons as they were watching amusing film clips and cartoons. Negative-affect smiles had been displayed spontaneously by target persons during an interaction in which they were being unfairly accused. Affectively neutral smiles were posed upon request. Differences in the accompanying emotional experiences were validated by target persons' self-reports. These smile videos served as experimental stimuli in two studies with younger and older adult participants. In Study 1, older participants were less likely to attribute positive emotions to smiles, and more likely to assume that a smile was posed. Furthermore, younger participants were more accurate than older adults at identifying emotional experiences accompanying smiles. In Study 2, both younger and older participants attributed positive emotions more frequently to smiles shown by older as compared to younger target persons, but older participants did so less frequently than younger participants. Again, younger participants were more accurate than older participants in identifying emotional experiences accompanying smiles, but this effect was attenuated for older target persons. Older participants could better identify the emotional state accompanying smiles shown by older than by younger target persons. Taken together, these findings indicate that there is an age-related decline in the ability to decipher the emotional meaning of smiles presented without context, which, however, is attenuated when the smiling person is also an older adult.
Highlights
Facial expressions are a pivotal component of non-verbal communication
We present the results of Study 2 following the same logic as in Study 1: First we report analyses on age-related differences in participants’ response tendencies when evaluating the emotional experience accompanying smile expressions, irrespective of whether these responses were correct
0.048 younger target persons, and chose the response option “neutral smile” more frequently for younger targets’ smile expressions than the response option “positive-affect smile.”. Both younger and older participants ascribed positive-affective experiences more frequently to smile expressions shown by older as compared to younger target persons, but this age-of-target effect was pronounced among younger participants. This was because younger participants in Study 2 chose the response option “positive-affect smile” more frequently and the response option “neutral smiles” less frequently than older participants did when evaluating the emotional nature of smile expressions displayed by older target persons
Summary
Facial expressions are a pivotal component of non-verbal communication. They can convey information about the emotional state of the expressive person (e.g., Ekman, 1972; Izard, 1994), and about accompanying behavioral intentions and action requests (e.g., Fridlund, 1994, 1997). Even though smiling is regarded in many cultures as a prototypical sign of pleasure (e.g., Ekman, 1972; Elfenbein and Ambady, 2002), people do not smile only when they are joyful or amused. They smile when they experience negative affect, such as sadness (e.g., Bonanno and Keltner, 1997; Papa and Bonanno, 2008), and they smile in the absence of intense feelings, for example, to be polite. We explain the steps we have taken in the present studies to further advance this line of research, and derive our research questions and predictions
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