Abstract
Facial self-resemblance has been associated with positive emotional evaluations, but this effect may be biased by self-face familiarity. Here we report two experiments utilizing startle modulation to investigate how the processing of facial expressions of emotion is affected by subtle resemblance to the self as well as to familiar faces. Participants of the first experiment (I) (N = 39) were presented with morphed faces showing happy, neutral, and fearful expressions which were manipulated to resemble either their own or unknown faces. At SOAs of either 300 ms or 3500–4500 ms after picture onset, startle responses were elicited by binaural bursts of white noise (50 ms, 105 dB), and recorded at the orbicularis oculi via EMG. Manual reaction time was measured in a simple emotion discrimination paradigm. Pictures preceding noise bursts by short SOA inhibited startle (prepulse inhibition, PPI). Both affective modulation and PPI of startle in response to emotional faces was altered by physical similarity to the self. As indexed both by relative facilitation of startle and faster manual responses, self-resemblance apparently induced deeper processing of facial affect, particularly in happy faces. Experiment II (N = 54) produced similar findings using morphs of famous faces, yet showed no impact of mere familiarity on PPI effects (or response time, either). The results are discussed with respect to differential (presumably pre-attentive) effects of self-specific vs. familiar information in face processing.
Highlights
Most people are inclined to see others similar in physical appearance to themselves as more trustworthy and likable [1]
Separate sets of planned polynomial contrasts computed for each level of SIMILARITY showed a significant negative linear trend for emotional faces morphed with another person’s face, F(1,38) = 7.91, p = .008, ηp2 = 0.172 (with marginal contribution of a quadratic effect, F(1,38) = 2.83, p = .10, ηp2 = 0.069)
The pattern of responses to self-resembling faces was best approximated by a quadratic trend, F(1,38) = 6.75, p = .013, ηp2 = 0.151
Summary
Most people are inclined to see others similar in physical appearance to themselves as more trustworthy and likable [1]. This bias toward self-resembling faces may even translate to more favorable prosocial attributions and higher willingness to engage in mutual cooperation [2, 3] (but see [4] for diverging evidence). Favorable evaluation of similarity to the self is consistent with the general positivity bias linked to the processing of self-related information, both at an explicit [5] and implicit level [6], as well as with the even more basic preference for familiarity
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