Abstract
We tested if facial reactions to another person’s facial expressions depend on the self-relevance of the observed expressions. In the present study (n = 44), we measured facial electromyographic (zygomatic and corrugator) activity and autonomic arousal (skin conductance) responses to a live model’s smiling and neutral faces. In one condition, the participant and the model were able to see each other normally, whereas in the other condition, the participant was led to believe that the model could not see the participant. The results showed that the increment of zygomatic activity in response to smiling faces versus neutral faces was greater when the participants believed they were being watched than it was when the participants believed they were not being watched. However, zygomatic responses to smiles did not differ between the conditions, while the results suggested that the participants’ zygomatic responses to neutral faces seemed to attenuate in the condition of believing they were being watched. Autonomic responses to smiling faces were greater in the belief of being watched than in the belief of not being watched condition. The results suggest that the self-relevance of another individual’s facial expression modulates autonomic arousal responses and to a lesser extent facial EMG responses.
Highlights
Other people’s facial expressions are crucial stimuli in our social environment
In experiments requiring participants not to react with their facial muscles to facial expression stimuli, it has been shown that participants cannot avoid producing congruent facial reactions to positive and negative facial expressions[12]
We showed that when participants were led to believe that a half-silvered mirror was placed between the participant and a live model in such a way that the model could not see the participant, psychophysiological responses and behavioural responses were not greater to the direct gaze than they were to the averted gaze, unlike when the half-silvered mirror was absent and the participants believed they could be seen by the model[32,33]
Summary
Other people’s facial expressions are crucial stimuli in our social environment. Facial expressions have been suggested to have two types of functions: they can signal the expressers’ social intentions and underlying emotions[1,2]. Studies have shown that facial EMG responses differentiate more clearly between the happy and angry expressions of an avatar when the avatar’s gaze is directed at the observer compared to when the gaze is averted[21], and zygomatic and corrugator responses to happy and angry expressions, respectively, have been shown to be greater when human and avatar expressers have a direct gaze compared to an averted gaze[22,23] In their ‘Simulation of smiles’ model (SIMS), Niedenthal and colleagues suggested that when perceiving another’s smile, the somatosensory system can simulate the embodied experience of how the perceived smile feels, and that eye contact, as a signal of social relevance, serves to trigger an embodied simulation of the perceived facial expression[24]. Facial reactions in response to a smiling face with a direct versus an averted gaze could differ because of the effects of gaze direction on facial expression processing
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