Do people have accurate beliefs about the behavioral consequences of incidental emotions? Evidence from trust games

The present study examined people’s expectations of how incidental emotions could shape others’ reciprocity in trusting situations, whether these expectations affect people’s own behavior, and how accurate these expectations are. Study 1 explored people’s beliefs about the effects of different incidental emotions on another person’s trustworthiness in general. In Studies 2 and 3, senders in trust games faced angry, guilty, grateful, or emotionally neutral responders. Participants who were told about their counterpart’s emotional state acted consistently with their beliefs about how these emotions would affect the other’s trustworthiness. These beliefs were not always correct, however. There were significant deviations between the expected behavior of angry responders and such responders’ actual behavior. These findings raise the possibility that one player’s knowledge of the other’s emotional state may lead to action choices that yield poor outcomes for both players.     

Automated Measurement of Facial Expression in Infant–Mother Interaction: A Pilot Study

Automated facial measurement using computer vision has the potential to objectively document continuous changes in behavior. To examine emotional expression and communication, we used automated measurements to quantify smile strength, eye constriction, and mouth opening in two 6‐month‐old infant‐mother dyads who each engaged in a face‐to‐face interaction. Automated measurements showed high associations with anatomically based manual coding (concurrent validity); measurements of smiling showed high associations with mean ratings of positive emotion made by naive observers (construct validity). For both infants and mothers, smile strength and eye constriction (the Duchenne marker) were correlated over time, creating a continuous index of smile intensity. Infant and mother smile activity exhibited changing (nonstationary) local patterns of association, suggesting the dyadic repair and dissolution of states of affective synchrony. The study provides insights into the potential and limitations of automated measurement of facial action.     

Lying and nonverbal behavior: Theoretical issues and new findings

Conceptual issues about deceit, in specific why lies fail and when and how behavior may betray a lie, provides the basis for considering the type of experimental situations which may be fruitful for the study of deceit. New evidence, integrating past reports with new unpublished findings, compare the relative efficacy of facial, bodily, vocal, paralinguistic and textual measures in discriminating deceptive from honest behavior. The findings show also that most people do not rely upon the most useful sources of information in judging whether someone is lying.The information reported here also appears inCredibility Assessment—A Unified Theoretical and Research Perspective, J. Yuille (Ed.), in press, Kluwer. The work described was supported by a Research Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 06092) and a previous grant from NIMH (MH11976).     

American-Japanese cultural differences in attributions of personality based on smiles

Several studies have already documented how Americans and Japanese differ in both the expression and perception of facial expressions of emotion in general, and of smiles in particular. These cultural differences can be linked to differences in cultural display and decoding rules (Ekman, 1972; and Buck, 1984, respectively). The existence of these types of rules suggests that people of different cultures may hold different assumptions about social-personality characteristics, on the basis of smiling versus non-smiling faces. We suggest that Americans have come to associate more positive characteristics to smiling faces than do the Japanese. We tested this possibility by presenting American and Japanese judges with smiles or neutral faces (i.e., faces with no muscle movement) depicted by both Caucasian and Japanese male and female posers. The judges made scalar ratings of each face they viewed on four different dimensions. The findings did indicate that Americans and Japanese differed in their judgments, but not on all dimensions.David Matsumoto was supported in part by a research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 42749-01), and from a Faculty Award for Creativity, Scholarship, and Research from San Francisco State University. We would like to thank Masami Kobayashi, Fazilet Kasri, Deborah Krupp, Bill Roberts, and Michelle Weissman for their aid in our research program on emotion. We would especially like to thank the Editor for her excellent suggestions and help in conceptualizing this research.     

Parent and Nonparent Perception of the Multimodal Infant Cry

This study examined whether perceivers can detect infant distress in the visual and acoustic signals within the cry. Parent and nonparent perceivers rated distress in 3‐, 6‐, 8‐, and 12‐month‐old infants' cries that were manipulated to separate facial, vocal, and bodily action. Mean perceiver ratings differed for high‐ and low‐distress cries at each infant age on the basis of facial and vocal action, but not bodily movement. Perceivers rated the cry sound as more distressed and the cry face as less distressed with increasing infant age. Parents rated the cries as less distressed overall than did nonparents. The results suggest that information about distress is available for perceivers in the crying infant's face and voice.     

Fields of action: Structure in movements' tactical repertoires

The structure of choice among available tactics is a key to understanding the roles of individuals and organizations within a social movement. This paper proposes a method for operationalizing the notion of repertoires of collective action. Using data from a case study of a recent disarmament campaign, it models the tactical field faced by activists. An analysis of the dimensions of this field and the clusters of tactics within it suggests how individuals organized their options and how they understood the distinctive features of an innovative course of action. Such field models can illuminate ideological and organizational differentiation, as well as cooperation and competition within movements.I am grateful to Richard Schreuer and to three anonymous reviewers for criticisms and comments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Eastern Sociological Society meetings in April 1986.     

Contributions of the German “Expression Psychology” to nonverbal communication research

An attempt is made to survey research on nonverbal behavior performed by German speaking Expression Psychologists. In this first part of a series of articles (other parts will cover research on facial expression, body movement, and speech and voice) theories and concepts of this nearly unknown branch of psychology are reviewed and discussed. Topics include the nature of expressive behavior, the relation between states/traits and expressive behavior, and the perception of expressive behavior.... we should now concentrate on searching for new avenues of approach, particularly in the study of human social communication, without worrying too much about rigid conformity with the canons of experimental respectability. We need more ideas, not more experiments; any provocative theory would be preferable to the inductive collecting of bits and pieces that has become our respectable habit. (Israel & Tajfel, 1972, p. 4)Editor's Note: The subsequent three parts of this series, to be published in consecutive issues of theJournal, further explore this area of theory and research often little known to American psychologists. Comments and contributions about the series are welcomed.     

Do Infants Show Distinct Negative Facial Expressions for Fear and Anger? Emotional Expression in 11‐Month‐Old European American,Chinese, and Japanese Infants

Do infants show distinct negative facial expressions for different negative emotions? To address this question, European American, Chinese, and Japanese 11‐month‐olds were videotaped during procedures designed to elicit mild anger or frustration and fear. Facial behavior was coded using Baby FACS, an anatomically based scoring system. Infants' nonfacial behavior differed across procedures, suggesting that the target emotions were successfully elicited. However evidence for distinct emotion‐specific facial configurations corresponding to fear versus anger was not obtained. Although facial responses were largely similar across cultures, some differences also were observed. Results are discussed in terms of functionalist and dynamical systems approaches to emotion and emotional expression.     

Executing Facial Control During Deception Situations

Behavioral countermeasures are the strategies engaged by liars to deliberately control face or body behavior to fool lie catchers. To date research has not shown whether deceivers can suppress elements of their facial expression as a behavioral countermeasure. This study examined whether participants could suppress facial actions such as eyebrow movements or smiles on command when under scrutiny by a lie catcher. The results derived from micro momentary coding revealed that facial actions can be reduced, but not eliminated, and that instructions to suppress one element of the expression resulted in reduction in all facial movement, regardless of veracity. The resulting implications for security contexts are discussed.     

Goffman's legacy to political sociology

Conclusion I don't claim that Goffman addressed the questions that animate political sociologists. He was not interested in analyzing interaction to learn how it contributed to mobilization for collective action aimed at social change. He was not interested in changing political consciousness or in how the mass media and other social institutions make such change so difficult. But for those who are interested in such questions, he is worth heeding. His is an unanticipated bequest — from the cranky uncle who we always thought had no great love or admiration for our line of work.I have tried to show how Goffman's arguments about the nature of the interaction order and frame analysis can be applied to increase our understanding of micromobilization and political consciousness. The help here is concrete and empirical, aiding us in interpreting historical cases and guiding us in systematic research.But perhaps Goffman's most enduring legacy is in the moral stance that pervades his observations about social institutions. It goes beyond ideology, to the spirit of our intellectual pursuits. It is eloquently captured in words written after Goffman's death by the poet, Joseph BrodskyThe surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even — if you will — eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned impostor couldn't be happy with .... Evil is a sucker for solidity. It always goes for big numbers, for confident granite, for ideological purity, for drilled armies and balanced sheets. For Goffman, it was a lesson he knew and lived.

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Feminist Methodology in Social Movements Research

Feminist social scientists have developed distinctive principles of inquiry that depart from the positivist ideal of the detached, value-free scientist and are consistent with the feminist goal of rendering women's experiences visible and challenging gender inequality. In this article, I show how my research on the postpartum depression self-help movement illustrates five features of feminist methodology: a gender perspective, accentuation of women's experiences, reflexivity, participatory methods, and social action. My intent is to demonstrate how attention to the epistemological and methodological questions posed by feminist researchers produces new standards of evidence that allow us to recognize the gendering of social movement processes and theory.     

Movement Differences between Deliberate and Spontaneous Facial Expressions: Zygomaticus Major Action in Smiling

Previous research suggests differences in lip movement between deliberate and spontaneous facial expressions. We investigated within participant differences between deliberately posed and spontaneously occurring smiles during a directed facial action task. Using automated facial image analysis, we quantified lip corner movement during periods of visible Zygomaticus major activity. Onset and offset speed, amplitude of movement, and offset duration were greater in deliberate smiles. In contrast to previous results, however, lip corner movement asymmetry was not greater in deliberate smiles. Observed characteristics of deliberate and spontaneous smiling may be related to differences in the typical context and purpose of the facial signal. Karen L. Schmidt, Zara Ambadar, Jeffrey F. Cohn, and L. Ian Reed are affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Jeffrey F. Cohn is also affiliated with the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. This research was supported by NIMH Grants MH15279 and 167376 to Karen L. Schmidt, and NIMH Grant MH 51435 to Jeffrey F. Cohn. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Adena Zlochower in digitizing videotape used in this analysis and Rachel Levenstein in the analysis of data described in this paper. Address correspondence to Karen L. Schmidt, University of Pittsburgh, 121 University Pl, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; E-mail: kschmidt@pitt.edu     

Genocide as Contentious Politics

Despite a recent turn towards the study of political violence within the field of contentious politics, scholars have yet to focus their lens on genocide. This is puzzling, as the field of collective action and social movements was originally developed in reaction to fascism (Nazism in particular), while research on collective action and research on genocide has long shown parallel findings and shared insights. This paper reviews the history of this scholarly convergence and divergence, and suggests that recent findings of research on genocide can be improved by the consideration of concepts from social movements and collective action. It then details three theories of the micro‐mechanisms that mobilize individuals for contention – framing, diffusion, and networks – and specifies how they refine existing explanations of civilian participation in genocide. In the conclusion, I suggest that a contentious politics approach to genocide would consider it one form of collective action among others, analyzable within the existing framework of collective action and social movement theory.     

Establishing shelters for battered women: Local manifestations of a social movement

This paper analyzes how decentralized social movements manifest themselves on the local level, by studying twenty-five social movement organizations within the battered women's movement. Data consist of in-depth interviews with group members, the study focuses on six issues faced by the groups: how they recognized the need in their communities for alternative services for battered women; how they enlisted community support; how they defined themselves in terms of feminism and the participation of men, how they developed a working relationship with the battered women whom they wanted to help; how they structured their organizations; and how they established goals and strategies. Since the groups were at different stages of development, a dynamic analysis is made of each issue. Groups dealt with the issues on the basis of local resources, values, and other conditions. The movement's structure allowed this independence, which strengthened each group's ability to mobilize resources and accomplish goals. However, it also resulted in local decisions that were often inconsistent with movement goals and weakened the ability of movement leaders to control strategy.The author is grateful to Barrie Thorne, Kathleen Ferraro, the editors and two anonymous reviewers of QUALITATIVE SOCIOLOGY for their extensive reviews of earlier drafts of this paper. Support for writing the paper was provided by a summer fellowship from the Faculty Research Committee of the University of Richmond.     

How Local Social Movement Groups Handle a Presidential Election

How do local social movement groups respond to national electoral politics? Previous studies, often based on aggregated data on public protests, focus on the effects of elections on established social movement organizations (SMOs). Some find that SMOs flourish during election years, taking advantage of the political opportunities that elections pose. Others conclude that elections hurt SMOs, siphoning members and resources. Using ethnographic, in-depth interview, and document data on new and emerging social movement groups (SMGs) in Pittsburgh for 20 months before and after the 2004 U.S. presidential election, we examine how members think about elections and whether and how groups decide to respond to national electoral campaigns. We find that SMGs vary considerably in the strategies of action or inaction they adopt, depending on their changing sense of whether the election poses an opportunity or a threat to the group and that these strategies of action are patterned in path-dependent sequences. We conclude with a discussion of the possibilities for integrating concepts of path-dependency and timing into social movement research.     

Thirty Years of Lottery Public Health Research: Methodological Strategies and Trends

Cognitive measurement techniques, such as self-reports of behavior and reaction time measures, largely dominate the field of psychological research. It is uncommon for researchers to examine a phenomenon of interest by observing actual behavior within natural settings. To illustrate the existence of this methodological trend for gambling research, this article reviews systematically selected samples of the peer-reviewed literature related to lottery gambling in general and the literature related to pathological gambling and lottery more specifically. The results indicate that self-report surveys dominate the extant lottery literature, and experimental investigations of video lottery terminal gambling supplement those papers. This landscape encourages researchers to expand their methodological approaches to the study of lottery gambling. Currently, we know more about what research participants tell us they do with respect to lottery gambling than we do about their real-life lottery gambling behavior.     

Contributions of a babyface and a childlink voice to impressions of Moving and Talking Faces

The present research examined if the impact of a babyface on trait impressions documented in previous research holds true for moving faces. It also assessed the relative impact of a babyface and a childlike voice on impressions of talking faces. To achieve these goals, male and female targets' traits as well as their facial and vocal characteristics were rated in one of four information conditions: Static Face, Moving Face, Voice Only, or Talking Face. Facial structure measurements were also made by two independent judges. Data for male faces supported the experimental hypotheses. Specifically, regression analyses revealed that although a babyish facial structure created the impression of weakness even when a target moved his face, this effect was diminished when he also talked. Here a childlike voice and dynamic babyishness, as assessed by moving face ratings, were more important predictors. Similarly, a babyish facial structure had less impact on impressions of a talking target's warmth than did dynamic babyishness or other facial movement. A childlike voice had no impact on impressions of warmth when facial information was available.This research was supported by a NIMH Grant #BSR 5 R01 MH42684 to the first author. The authors would like to thank Linda Linn for her assistance in preparing the stimulus materials and Danylle Rudin for her help in collecting the data. Thanks are also extended to David M. Buss for his suggestions about alternative explanations which may help guide future work.     

Evidence of Big Five and Aggressive Personalities in Gait Biomechanics

Behavioral observation techniques which relate action to personality have long been neglected (Furr and Funder in Handbook of research methods in personality psychology, The Guilford Press, New York, 2007) and, when employed, often use human judges to code behavior. In the current study we used an alternative to human coding (biomechanical research techniques) to investigate how personality traits are manifest in gait. We used motion capture technology to record 29 participants walking on a treadmill at their natural speed. We analyzed their thorax and pelvis movements, as well as speed of gait. Participants completed personality questionnaires, including a Big Five measure and a trait aggression questionnaire. We found that gait related to several of our personality measures. The magnitude of upper body movement, lower body movement, and walking speed, were related to Big Five personality traits and aggression. Here, we present evidence that some gait measures can relate to Big Five and aggressive personalities. We know of no other examples of research where gait has been shown to correlate with self-reported measures of personality and suggest that more research should be conducted between largely automatic movement and personality.     

The effect of stimulus content on volunteering for sexual interest research among college students

Much of the literature on volunteer bias in sexual interest research has been limited to either identifying variables on which volunteers differ from nonvolunteers or examining how the intrusiveness of the measurement device affects volunteer rates. The present study was designed to examine whether stimulus content would affect volunteer rates and volunteer/nonvolunteer differences in a large sample of college students (206 men and 358 women). The study also sought to determine whether such findings could also apply to research that recruits from exclusively heterosexual samples. Students completed questionnaires in small groups and were asked whether they would be willing to volunteer for studies that would involve viewing and rating five different types of sexually explicit images (nude men, nude women, heterosexual behavior, male homosexual behavior, and female homosexual behavior). Results indicate that men and women differed in the types of images that they would volunteer to view, based upon the content of the images. Furthermore, volunteers for each type of image reported significantly greater self-monitoring as well as sexual and general sensation seeking than did nonvolunteers, while differences on other measures were less consistent. Discussion is given to specific ways in which the findings and generalizability of sexual interest study results can be affected.