Happy Expressions Research Articles

Unconscious processing of happy faces correlates with prosocial tendency but not extraversion

Perceiving facial expressions plays a crucial role in face-to-face social interactions. A wealth of studies has revealed the unconscious processing of emotional stimuli, including facial expressions. However, the relationship between the unconscious processing of happy faces and socially oriented personality traits—such as extraversion and prosocial tendency—remains largely unexplored. By pairing backward-masked faces with supraliminally presented faces in both visual fields, we found that the discrimination of visible emotional faces was modulated by the facial expressions of the invisible faces in the opposite visual field. The emotionally consistent condition showed a shorter reaction time (Exp 1) or higher accuracy (Exp 2) than the inconsistent condition. Moreover, the unconscious processing of happy faces was positively correlated with prosocial tendency but not with extraversion personality. These findings shed new light on the adaptive functions of unconscious emotional face processing, and highlight the importance of future investigations into the unconscious processing of extrafoveal happy expression.

Deficits in facial emotion recognition and cognitive function among baby boomers.

Facial emotion recognition (FER), a key component of social cognition, plays a critical role in social interactions. In the aging process, FER among older adults holds significant potential as a tool for diagnosing cognitive function or enhancing interpersonal relationships. However, research in this area remains limited. This study aims to address this gap by examining the impact of cognitive function on FER among Korean baby boomers aged 60 to 69. Eighty-one participants completed the Korean version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (K-MOCA) and FER tasks. Of the participants, 69% had normal cognition, while 31% had mild cognitive impairment. Participants with normal cognition were 1.59 times more likely to recognize facial expressions correctly than those with impaired cognition (AOR=1.59, p<0.0001). They showed significantly higher odds of recognizing happy (AOR=9.68), anger (AOR=2.25), disgust (AOR=1.95), neutral (AOR=3.02), and surprise (AOR=2.27) expressions (p<0.001). Participants with normal cognition participants also scored higher on overall intensity for every emotion except sadness (p<0.001). Among the seven domains of the MoCA, three sub-domains-visuospatial/executive function, language, and orientation-showed significant associations with overall FER. These results highlight the diagnostic potential of FER tasks in identifying cognitive disorders and enhancing social skills in clinical and practical settings.

Neural mechanisms underlying the interactive exchange of facial emotional expressions.

Facial emotional expressions are crucial in face-to-face social interactions, and recent findings have highlighted their interactive nature. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. This EEG study investigated whether the interactive exchange of facial expressions modulates socio-emotional processing. Participants (N = 41) displayed a facial emotional expression (angry, neutral, or happy) towards a virtual agent, and the agent then responded with a further emotional expression (angry or happy) or remained neutral (control condition). We assessed subjective experience (valence, arousal), facial EMG (Zygomaticus, Corrugator), and ERPs (EPN, LPP) elicited by the agent's response. Replicating previous findings, we found that an agent's happy facial expression was experienced as more pleasant and elicited increased Zygomaticus activity when participants had initiated the interaction with a happy compared to an angry expression. At the neural level, angry expressions resulted in a greater LPP than happy expressions, but only when participants directed an angry or happy, but not a neutral, expression at the agent. These findings suggest that sending an emotional expression increases salience and enhances the processing of received emotional expressions, indicating that an interactive setting alters brain responses to social stimuli.

The effects of Covid-19 related policies on neurocognitive face processing in the first four years of life.

In response to Covid-19, western governments introduced policies that likely resulted in a reduced variety of facial input. This study investigated how this affected neural representations of face processing: speed of face processing; face categorization (differentiating faces from houses); and emotional face processing (differentiating happy, fearful, and neutral expressions), in infants (five or ten months old) and children (three years old). We compared participants tested before (total N = 462) versus during (total N = 473) the pandemic-related policies, and used electroencephalography to record brain activity. Event Related Potentials showed faster face processing in three-year-olds but not in infants during the policies. However, there were no meaningful differences between the two Covid-groups regarding face categorization, indicating that this fundamental process is resilient despite the reduced variety of input. In contrast, the processing of facial emotions was affected: across ages, while pre-pandemic children showed differential activity, during-pandemic children did not neurocognitively differentiate between happy and fearful expressions. This effect was primarily attributed to a reduced amplitude in response to happy faces. Given that these findings were present only in the later neural components (P400 and Nc), this suggests that post-pandemic children have a reduced familiarity or attention towards happy facial expressions.

The significance of mothers' neural responding to infant emotional cues for caregiving behaviors: The moderating role of infant temperamental distress.

We examined associations between mothers' (N = 137; 77.7% White/non-Hispanic) neural responding implicated in facial encoding (N170) and attention (P300) to infant emotional expressions and direct observations of their caregiving behaviors toward their 6-month-old infants. We also explored the moderating role of mother-reported and observer-rated infant temperamental distress. Few direct associations emerged that were not further moderated by temperament. Specifically, a dampened N170 to infant distress (vs. neutral) expressions was associated with mothers' intrusiveness, and a larger P300 to infant happy (vs. neutral) expressions was associated with mothers' sensitivity to distress. Among mothers who perceived their infants as high in temperamental distress, neural responding reflective of distinguishing (N170) and attending (P300) to infant distress (vs. neutral) expressions was associated with maternal sensitivity to distress, and neural responding reflective of encoding (N170) infant emotional (distress, happy, vs. neutral) expressions was associated with greater maternal sensitivity to nondistress. At lower levels of mother-reported temperamental distress, a heightened N170 to infant emotional (distress, happy, vs. neutral) expressions was associated with mothers' detachment. Findings indicate that distinctive patterns of neural responding to infant emotional expressions are associated with specific caregiving behaviors and demonstrate the significance of mothers' perceptions of infant temperamental distress in moderating the extent to which neural responding to infant expressions is associated with their caregiving behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Application of automated face coding (AFC) in older adults: A pilot study.

The study aimed to assess the prevalence and nature of emotional expressions in care-dependent older adults, using an automated face coding (AFC) software. By examining the seven fundamental emotions, the study sought to understand how these emotions manifest and their potential implications for dental care in this population. Fifty care-dependent older adults' (mean-age: 78.90 ± 10.83 years; n = 50, men = 25, women = 25) emotional expressions were analyzed using an AFC software. The study measured the prevalence of the seven fundamental emotions including neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, and disgusted. Correlations were explored between these expressions and demographic variables such as sex, age, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores, as well as the use of sedation. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests and Spearman's rho correlations were applied for statistical analysis (p < 0.05). Neutral expression was the most common emotion (0.732 ± 0.23), with other emotions largely inactive. A trace of happiness was detected in women (0.110 ± 0.23), though not statistically significant (p = 0.061). Significant correlations were found between happy expressions and left eye opening (p = 0.021), and a negative correlation was observed between mouth opening and sad expressions (p = 0.049). No significant associations were found with age, MMSE scores, or sedation use. This study found that AFC software can detect and quantify emotions from facial expressions of dependent older adults and that they predominantly exhibited neutral expressions, with few signs of other emotions. Future research should explore these influences to inform personalized care approaches.

Happy and angry facial expressions are processed independently of task demands and semantic context congruency in the first stages of vision - A mass univariate ERP analysis.

Neural decoding of others' facial expressions is critical in social interactions and has been investigated using scalp event related potentials (ERPs). However, the impact of task and emotional context congruency on this neural decoding is unclear. Previous ERP studies employed classic statistical analyses that only focused on specific electrodes and time points, which inflates type I and type II errors. The present study re-analyzed the study by Aguado et al. (2019) using robust data-driven Mass Univariate Statistics across every time point and electrode and rejected trials with early reaction times to rule out motor-related activity on neural recordings. Participants viewed neutral faces paired with negative or positive situational sentences (e.g. "She catches her partner cheating on her with her best friend"), followed by the same individuals' faces expressing happiness or anger, such that the facial expressions were congruent or incongruent with the situation. Participants engaged in two tasks: an emotion discrimination task, and a situation-expression congruency discrimination task. We found significant effects of expression largest during the N170-P2 interval, and effects of congruency and task around an LPP-like component. However, the effect of congruency was significant only in the congruency task, suggesting a limited and task-dependant influence of semantic context. Importantly, emotion did not interact with any factor neurally, suggesting facial expressions were decoded automatically during the first 400 ms of vision, regardless of context congruency or task demands. The results and their discrepancies with the original findings are discussed in the context of ERP statistics and the replication crisis.

SMILE, YOU’LL FEEL BETTER: TESTING THE FACIAL FEEDBACK HYPOTHESIS IN YOUNG AND OLDER ADULTS

Abstract We investigated age differences in the effect of facial feedback on the emotional experience on a sample of young and older adults. The Facial Feedback Hypothesis proposes that feedback from facial expressions impacts the emotional experience by enhancing or dampening the emotional experience (James, 1884; Darwin 1897). Embodied cognition, the bidirectional relationship between the mind and the body is central to maturational dualism, which suggests older adults show reductions in proprioception, interoception, and physiological reactivity (Niedenthal et al., 2005; Mendes, 2010). Based on this, we expected older adults to show reduced facial feedback effects. Participants were instructed to pose a happy, angry, and neutral facial expression and rate their happiness and anger on a 7-point scale before and during the facial manipulation. We found that in the Angry Condition, there was a main effect of Time, such that both age groups showed reductions in happiness scores, F(1,119) = 86.243, p&amp;lt;.001, η2=.420 and increases in anger, F(1,119) = 29.798, p&amp;lt;.001, η2=.200, as well as a Time x Age Group interaction, F(1,119) = 4.546, p&amp;lt;.035, η2=.03, showing that older adults had a larger decrease in happiness scores, but no age differences in feelings of anger. In the Happy Condition, we did not find any significant age differences in ratings of happiness or anger from pre to post while posing the happy or angry facial expression. Contrary to our hypotheses, these results suggest that older adults do experience facial feedback effects specifically for anger, but not happiness.

Angry or neutral, it does not matter to me: Implicit processing of facial emotions is not related to peer victimization experiences.

The aim of this study was to examine whether prolonged victimization relates to differential processing of emotions. Based on the social information processing theory, it was hypothesized that prolonged victimization would modulate emotion processing, such that victimization relates to a heightened attentional focus toward negative facial expressions and increased amygdala activation in response to negative facial expressions. We targeted a unique sample of 83 children (Mage = 10.6, 49.4% girls) whose victimization history in the past 2 years was available. An Emotional Dot-Probe Task and an Emotion Processing fMRI Task were administered to the participants. Findings included that victimization did not relate significantly to a heightened attentional focus on happy, angry, or fearful expressions. Viewing facial expressions resulted in the activation of the posterior medial frontal cortex, bilateral insula, bilateral fusiform face area, and the right amygdala and hippocampus, which was not related to victimization, nor was victimization related to activation in the amygdala or the social brain regions (medial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, precuneus, posterior superior temporal sulcus) when viewing specific emotional (happy, angry, afraid, sad) expressions. Together, these results do not provide evidence that implicit emotion processing without social context relates to victimization. Future research should replicate these results and further examine emotion processing in relation to severe victimization experiences and support systems, such as friendships or parenting, on emotion processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Implementation of Mastery Learning Model in Learn Tahfizh al-Qur’an at Madrasah Tsanawiyah in Indonesia

The aim of this research is to increase students' interest and understanding by using educational game-based learning methods in PAI learning. This type of research is classroom action research (PTK). This research was carried out in the odd semester of the 2023/2024 academic year, starting from 3 October 2023 to 21 November 2023. This research was held at SD Inpres 5/81 Cinnong which is in Cinnong Village, Barebbo District, Bone Regency. 2nd grade students at SD Inpres 5/81 Cinnong, totaling 13 students, 10 male students and 3 female students were the subjects of this research. The object is the application of educational game-based learning methods to increase student interest and understanding. The data collection techniques used were interviews, observation and tests. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to analyze this research data. This research shows the results that when using the educational game method there is an increase in students' interest in learning from cycle I to cycle II, namely happy facial expressions in participating in learning from 7 students to 10 students. Pay attention during the learning process from 6 students to 11 students. Students do not play alone when the teacher teaches from 6 students to 11 students. trying to answer the questions given, from 4 students to 7 students. Trying to answer the questions given from 4 students to 11 students. Students' understanding also increased, in cycle 1 the students' average score was 70.77, there was an increase in cycle II with an average score of 90.

The influence of emotional cues and anthropomorphism on product temperature expectations

Throughout six online experiments (four pre-registered), in which participants were tasked to evaluate their temperature expectations of different beverages with or without emotional cues (i.e., emoji facial expressions) with specific temperature associations, we found that imbuing a product with emotional content can influence its expected temperature in online settings. A negative valence, low arousal (i.e., sad) expression on the receptacle of a hot beverage (e.g., hot chocolate milk, coffee) led to a lower expected temperature compared to a beverage with a positive valence, high arousal (i.e., happy) expression and a control condition without any expression. Notably, a happy expression did not result in any significant difference in expected temperature. In addition, there were no significant differences with cold beverages (i.e., iced chocolate milk, beer). We found that the influence of the sad emoji expression was enhanced with higher levels of anthropomorphism (i.e., making individuals focus on the emotions of the product). Our results suggest that the mechanism behind these effects is based on the product being imbued with the emotional connotation of the sad expression and, subsequently, its corresponding temperature association. Our research adds to the literature on consumer behaviour, food and anthropomorphism, and the relationship between temperature and emotions, and it has applications related to food expectations.

ANALISIS KINERJA ALGORITMA PEMBELAJARAN MESIN ENSEMBEL PADA DATASET MULTI KELAS CITRA JAFFE

This research aims to develop a facial expression recognition system based on the JAFFE dataset which includes seven classes of emotional expressions, namely happy, sad, angry, afraid, disgusted and neutral expressions. The first step taken is canny segmentation on each dataset to maintain essential information on each face. Next, extraction was carried out using the hu moments method to gain an in-depth understanding of the important characteristics of facial expressions. The next process involves ensemble voting using five classification methods, namely Naive Bayes (NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Gaussian Process Classifier (GPC), and Decision Tree. The results of these five methods are then ensembel using voting techniques, and the final results are evaluated using performance metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, and F-1 score. Evaluation is carried out by comparing the final results with the original data from the JAFFE dataset, by measuring accuracy , precision, recall, and F1 Score value to evaluate system performance. The results of this research show that the ensemble voting approach using a combination of classification methods is able to significantly improve facial expression recognition capabilities. The resulting accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 Score values provide a comprehensive picture of system performance. This research contributes to the development of facial emotion recognition technology and can be applied in various contexts. Includes human-computer interaction as well as applications in the fields of artificial intelligence.Keywords: Performance Analysis, Ensemble, Jaffe Image, Classification, Multiclass

Category-Sensitive Age-Related Shifts Between Prosodic and Semantic Dominance in Emotion Perception Linked to Cognitive Capacities.

Prior research extensively documented challenges in recognizing verbal and nonverbal emotion among older individuals when compared with younger counterparts. However, the nature of these age-related changes remains unclear. The present study investigated how older and younger adults comprehend four basic emotions (i.e., anger, happiness, neutrality, and sadness) conveyed through verbal (semantic) and nonverbal (facial and prosodic) channels. A total of 73 older adults (43 women, Mage = 70.18 years) and 74 younger adults (37 women, Mage = 22.01 years) partook in a fixed-choice test for recognizing emotions presented visually via facial expressions or auditorily through prosody or semantics. The results confirmed age-related decline in recognizing emotions across all channels except for identifying happy facial expressions. Furthermore, the two age groups demonstrated both commonalities and disparities in their inclinations toward specific channels. While both groups displayed a shared dominance of visual facial cues over auditory emotional signals, older adults indicated a preference for semantics, whereas younger adults displayed a preference for prosody in auditory emotion perception. Notably, the dominance effects observed in older adults for visual and semantic cues were less pronounced for sadness and anger compared to other emotions. These challenges in emotion recognition and the shifts in channel preferences among older adults were correlated with their general cognitive capabilities. Together, the findings underscore that age-related obstacles in perceiving emotions and alterations in channel dominance, which vary by emotional category, are significantly intertwined with overall cognitive functioning. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27307251.

Anthropomorphic Sad Expressions Reduce Waste of “Single” Imperfect Food

ABSTRACTPoint‐of‐sale anthropomorphism—attributing human characteristics to nonhuman entities—has been shown to increase evaluations of food that deviates in shape or form from consumer expectations (“imperfect food”). However, while previous research has included the use of primary emotions to manipulate anthropomorphism, it is unclear whether depicting imperfect produce with happy or sad emotional expressions is more effective in boosting choice of such produce. This research addresses this gap and additionally examines a novel type of imperfection: when produce is torn off the bunch it normally comes in. A field study conducted at a large food retailer in Germany revealed that sales of “single” bananas significantly increased when they were anthropomorphized with sad emotions compared to when they were anthropomorphized with happy emotions or not anthropomorphized. Across three preregistered online experiments, this research corroborates the effectiveness of sad emotional expressions in boosting purchase intentions, establishes compassion as the underlying process, generalizes this effect to other produce (i.e., tomatoes), and shows that a price discount eliminates this effect. The findings of this research are particularly relevant for food retailers aiming to increase purchases, and thus reduce waste, of fresh produce that has become a loose “single.”

Category-dependent contribution of dog facial and bodily cues in human perception of dog emotions

The increasing popularity of human-dog interaction in our society calls for fuller understanding of humans’ ability to appraise dogs’ affective states, yet most research only focuses on recognizing dog facial expressions of primary/basic emotions. While the face is the dominant human emotional expression channel, bodily cues are also informative indicators of dog emotional states. In this online study, with dynamic and naturalistic videos depicting a common range of dog primary (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) and secondary emotions (appeasement, frustration, pain, positive anticipation, separation-distress), we compared human performance from 447 participants in categorizing dog facial expressions (with a visible dog face only) and bodily expressions (with a visible dog face and body). The analysis revealed when averaging across all tested emotions, bodily expression tended to attract higher categorization accuracy than facial expression. However, the two expression channels demonstrated category-dependent modification of dog emotion categorization accuracy (e.g., higher accuracy in recognizing facial expressions of anger and surprise, but bodily expressions of happiness and fear) and bias (e.g., mistaking fear facial expression as happiness, but fear bodily expression as sadness). Furthermore, the impact of owner experience on recognizing dog emotions was also modulated by the expression channel and emotion category (e.g., prolonged experience with dogs tended to improve performance in recognizing the fear facial expression, and the appeasement bodily expression). Taken together, these results suggest that different channels of emotional expression by dogs may transmit category-specific diagnostic emotional cues, which aid human appraisal of their affective states.

A highly naturalistic facial expression generation method with embedded vein features based on diffusion model

Abstract Facial expression generation technology has achieved notable progress in computer vision and artificial intelligence. However, challenges persist regarding background consistency, expression clarity, and detailed representation. Additionally, the instability of generative adversarial networks (GANs) during training affects both image quality and diversity. While diffusion models have demonstrated potential advantages over GANs, research on controllable expression generation remains limited. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a highly natural facial expression generation method based on denoising diffusion implicit models (DDIM) with embedded vein features. This approach avoids adversarial training by employing gradual diffusion to generate specific expressions, thereby enhancing both the diversity and authenticity of the images. Vein features are introduced and embedded within the generated expression images to protect the intellectual property of algorithm-generated digital resources. Firstly, image and expression text guide words are combined as conditional inputs to improve the authenticity and diversity of the generated images. Secondly, a classification coding network is introduced to guide expression generation, thus enhancing the accuracy and consistency of the produced expressions. Furthermore, this paper proposes a vein feature fusion method based on multi-directional local dynamic feature coding operator (MLDFO) and integrates DDIM with frequency-domain watermarking technology to achieve image intellectual property protection. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this method across several public datasets, including FFHQ, CelebA, FV-USM, and SDUMLA-HMT. Notably, in the CelebA dataset, the average expression recognition rate increased by 11.41%, with a 100.00% recognition rate for happy expressions. The generated expression images exhibit a high degree of authenticity and consistency, and the video conversion tests reveal a natural and smooth effect. These results confirm that this method not only advances facial expression generation technology but also significantly enhances the steganographic protection of images.

Methodological Variations to Explore Conflicting Results in the Existing Literature of Masking Smile Judgment.

Although a smile can serve as an expression of genuine happiness, it can also be generated to conceal negative emotions. The traces of negative emotion present in these types of smiles can produce micro-expressions, subtle movements of the facial muscles manifested in the upper or lower half of the face. Studies examining the judgment of smiles masking negative emotions have mostly employed dichotomous rating measures, while also assuming that dichotomous categorization of a smile as happy or not is synonymous with judgments of the smile's authenticity. The aim of the two studies was to explore the judgment of enjoyment and masking smiles using unipolar and bipolar continuous rating measures and examine differences in the judgment when instruction varied between judgments of happiness and authenticity. In Experiment 1, participants rated smiles on 7-point scales on perceived happiness and authenticity. In Experiment 2, participants rated the smiles on bipolar 7-point scales between happiness and a negative emotion label. In both studies, similar patterns were observed: faces with traces of fear were rated significantly less happy/authentic and those with traces of anger in the brows were rated significantly happier/more authentic. Regarding varied instruction type, no effect was found for the two instruction types, indicating that participants perceive and judge enjoyment and masking smiles similarly according to these two instructions. Additionally, the use of bipolar scales with dimensions between a negative emotion label and happiness were not consistently effective in influencing the judgement of the masking smile.

Perceptual sensitivity to labeling stereotyped emotion expressions: Associations with age and subclinical psychopathology symptoms from childhood through early adulthood.

This study investigates (a) age-related differences in how the intensity of stereotyped facial expressions influence the emotion label children, adolescents, and adults assign to that face and (b) how this perceptual sensitivity relates to subclinical symptoms of psychopathology. In 2015-2016, 184 participants aged 4-25 years viewed posed stereotypes of angry, fearful, sad, and happy expressions morphed with neutral expressions at 10%-90% intensity. Thin plate regression smoothing splines were used to chart nonlinear associations between age and the perceptual threshold participants needed to assign the emotion label expected based on cultural consensus. Results suggest that sensitivity to labeling stereotypical happy faces as "happy" peaked by age 4. Sensitivity to perceiving stereotypical angry faces as "angry" increased from ages 4 to 7 and then plateaued. In contrast, sensitivity to perceiving stereotypical fearful and sad faces demonstrated protracted development, not reaching a plateau until ages 15 and 16, respectively. Reduction in selecting the "I don't know" response was the primary driver of these age-related changes. Stereotyped fear expressions required the highest intensity to be labeled as such and showed the most marked change in perceptual threshold across development. Interestingly, lower intensity morphs of stereotypical fear faces were frequently labeled "sad." Furthermore, perceiving lower intensity fear morphs was associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing symptoms in participants aged 7-19. This study describes the development of perceptual sensitivity to labeling stereotypical expressions of emotion according to cultural consensus and shows that how people perceive and categorize ambiguous facial expressions is associated with vulnerability to psychopathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Evaluating the Impact of BoNT-A Injections on Facial Expressions: A Deep Learning Analysis.

Botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) injections are widely administered for facial rejuvenation, but their effects on facial expressions remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to objectively measure the impact of BoNT-A injections on facial expressions with deep learning techniques. One hundred eighty patients age 25 to 60 years who underwent BoNT-A application to the upper face were included. Patients were photographed with neutral, happy, surprised, and angry expressions before and 14 days after the procedure. A convolutional neural network (CNN)-based facial emotion recognition (FER) system analyzed 1440 photographs with a hybrid data set of clinical images and the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) data set. The CNN model accurately predicted 90.15% of the test images. Significant decreases in the recognition of angry and surprised expressions were observed postinjection (P < .05), with no significant changes in happy or neutral expressions (P > .05). Angry expressions were often misclassified as neutral or happy (P < .05), and surprised expressions were more likely to be perceived as neutral (P < .05). Deep learning can effectively assess the impact of BoNT-A injections on facial expressions, providing more standardized data than traditional surveys. BoNT-A may reduce the expression of anger and surprise, potentially leading to a more positive facial appearance and emotional state. Further studies are needed to understand the broader implications of these changes.

Greater social network complexity mitigates pandemic-related negativity

Having strong, diverse social relationships is tightly linked to myriad physical and mental health benefits by mitigating the negative impacts of adverse events. The COVID-19 pandemic brought increased uncertainty and changes to our social lives that reduced the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., social distancing), but also likely impacted emotional well-being. We investigated how one of these changes – changing social networks – relates to emotional bias (a proxy for well-being), specifically one’s tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as positive or negative (i.e., valence bias). Participants ( N = 614) categorized the valence of clearly (e.g., angry and happy expressions) and ambiguously valenced stimuli (e.g., surprised expressions), and were asked about their social network before and during the pandemic. Compared to before the pandemic, participants reported a decrease in overall network size ( p &lt; .001) and number of embedded networks (i.e., a measure of network complexity represented by number of areas of social activity; p &lt; .001). In a model with all three social network dimensions (size, complexity, diversity), network complexity uniquely predicted valence bias ( p = .02). Specifically, participants with greater social network complexity during the pandemic showed a more positive bias. Further, participants that did not experience a pandemic-related reduction in network complexity were protected from pandemic-related increases in negativity ( p &lt; .001). In other words, having a more complex social network could act as a protective factor against adverse outcomes in times of uncertainty.