Facial Feedback Hypothesis Research Articles

Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis.

We investigated the hypothesis that people's facial activity influences their affective responses. Two studies were designed to both eliminate methodological problems of earlier experiments and clarify theoretical ambiguities. This was achieved by having subjects hold a pen in their mouth in ways that either inhibited or facilitated the muscles typically associated with smiling without requiring subjects to pose in a smiling face. Study 1's results demonstrated the effectiveness of the procedure. Subjects reported more intense humor responses when cartoons were presented under facilitating conditions than under inhibiting conditions that precluded labeling of the facial expression in emotion categories. Study 2 served to further validate the methodology and to answer additional theoretical questions. The results replicated Study 1's findings and also showed that facial feedback operates on the affective but not on the cognitive component of the humor response. Finally, the results suggested that both inhibitory and facilitatory mechanisms may have contributed to the observed affective responses.

The effects of spontaneous and voluntary facial reactions on surprise and humor

Two investigations were conducted to determine the nature of the relationship between facial reactions and surprise and humor ratings as suggested by the facial feedback hypothesis. In the correlational investigation, individual subjects showed a positive correlation between their spontaneous facial reactions and funniness ratings over 36 cartoons (within subjects). Subjects who were facially more reactive to all the cartoons, however, did not rate them as funnier than did subjects who were less facially reactive (between subjects). In the experimental investigation, spontaneous facial reactions were evoked by a discrepant weight and also were inhibited or amplified on verbal demand. Surprise and funniness ratings varied with spontaneous facial reactions but were unaffected when those reactions were voluntarily inhibited or amplified. The results were interpreted as not supporting the facial feedback hypothesis and suggested that facial reactions may only correlate with emotional experience.

The facial feedback hypothesis: Methodological concerns and new supporting evidence

Support for the weak version of the facial feedback hypothesis has been obtained repeatedly with the dynamic pose paradigm. In contrast, support for the strong version, which is tested with the static pose paradigm, has been inconsistent. We attributed this to methodological limitations in some studies rather than to problems intrinsic to the static pose paradigm. Utilizing a methodology that improved upon the hypothesized limitations, we obtained the facial feedback effect for the static poses of joy and anger with 142 male undergraduate students. The effect was uniform across levels of stimulus intensity and stimulus affect. Facial feedback did not vary with skills in nonverbal affective communication, self-monitoring, and the ability to form mental images.

Social presence, facial feedback, and emotion.

This study examined the influence of facial feedback on emotional experience and the influence of another's presence on facial communication. To test whether facial expressions regulate the expressers' emotional experience, subjects smelled pleasant and disgusting odors while reacting to them spontaneously, with a facial pose indicating that the odors were pleasant or with a facial pose indicating that they were disgusting. In a result that supported the facial feedback hypothesis, subjects evaluated the odors consistently with their facial poses (p < .001). But the odors themselves had a far greater impact on evaluations than did posing instructions. To test whether both spontaneous and deceptive emotional expressions would be more effective as communication if the expresser were in the presence of another, rather than alone, subjects smelled odors when they were alone or when seated next to another naive subject who could not see them. Contrary to prediction, subjects were less successful facial communicators in the presence of another. In this condition they communicated their evaluations less when they were spontaneously reacting to the odors and leaked their evaluations more when they were trying to hide their expressions (p < .07).

Differential emotions theory and the facial feedback hypothesis of emotion activation: Comments on Tourangeau and Ellsworth's "The role of facial response in the experience of emotion."

Differential emotions theory and the facial feedback hypothesis of emotion activation: Comments on Tourangeau and Ellsworth's "The role of facial response in the experience of emotion."

Facial, autonomic, and subjective components of emotion: the facial feedback hypothesis versus externalizer-internalizer distinction.

Two different models have been advanced concerning the role of facial expression in the experience of emotion. The facial feedback hypothesis states that facial expressions regulate affective experience. This position has been supported by findings that experimentally induced changes in facial expressiveness produced corresponding changes in autonomic responses and self-reports of emotion. A second model posits that expressive behavior and autonomic responses are negatively related. Evidence supporting this view consists of correlational analyses showing that facially expressive people (externalizers) exhibit less autonomic arousal than do those who are not facially expressive (internalizers). In the present study, the facial feedback hypothesis and the externalizer-internalizer distinction were evaluated by manipulating facial expressiveness and measuring subsequent autonomic responses and self-reports of emotion. Results showed that higher levels of facial expressiveness were accompanied by higher levels of autonomic activity and subjective reports of affective experience. This relationship was obtained in comparisons among experimental conditions as well as correlational analyses within conditions.

Differential emotions theory and the facial feedback hypothesis of emotion activation: Comments on Tourangeau and Ellsworth's "The role of facial response in the experience of emotion."

Differential emotions theory and the facial feedback hypothesis of emotion activation: Comments on Tourangeau and Ellsworth's "The role of facial response in the experience of emotion."

Facial, autonomic, and subjective components of emotion: The facial feedback hypothesis versus the externalizer–internalizer distinction.

Facial, autonomic, and subjective components of emotion: The facial feedback hypothesis versus the externalizer–internalizer distinction.

Nonverbal behavior and the theory of emotion: The facial feedback hypothesis.

The facial feedback hypothesis, that skeletal muscle feedback from facial expressions plays a causal role in regulating emotional experience and behavior, is an important part of several contemporary theories of emotion. A review of relevant research indicates that studies reporting support for this hypothesis have, without exception, used within-subjects designs and that therefore only a restricted version of the hypothesis has been tested. Also, the results of some of these studies must be questioned due to demand characteristics and other problems. It is suggested that visceral feedback may make a more direct contribution to emotional processes than facial feedback does and that the "readout" functions of facial expressions are more important than any feedback functions.

Nonverbal behavior and the theory of emotion: The facial feedback hypothesis.

Nonverbal behavior and the theory of emotion: The facial feedback hypothesis.