Not all behaviors are controlled in the same way: Different mechanisms underlie manual and facial approach and avoidance responses.

Abstract

How does affect impact approach and avoidance responses? Whereas approaches in a Darwinian tradition have emphasized a direct affect-behavior link, recent approaches in cognitive psychology have argued that the relation of affect to approach and avoidance responses depends on the coding of the behavioral response. We suggest that the relation of affect to approach and avoidance responses depends on the kind of behavior itself. Specifically, we tested the assumption that facial approach and avoidance responses are permanently linked to affect, whereas such links are more flexible and dependent on the coding of actions with manual responses. In one experiment, the response labels sun and rain were assigned to manual approach and avoidance responses and facial contractions of the zygomaticus and the corrugator muscles. Manual responses were facilitated when stimulus valence matched the valence of the response labels, whereas facial responses were facilitated when stimulus valence matched the affect expressed by these responses. The results suggest that the links between affect and manual responses depend on how these responses are cognitively coded, whereas the links between affect and facial responses are much less affected by such coding.