Enhanced Experience of Emotional Arousal in Response to Dynamic Facial Expressions

In this study, we investigated the emotional effect of dynamic presentation of facial expressions. Dynamic and static facial expressions of negative and positive emotions were presented using computer-morphing (Experiment 1) and videos of natural changes (Experiment 2), as well as other dynamic and static mosaic images. Participants rated the valence and arousal of their emotional response to the stimuli. The participants consistently reported higher arousal responses to dynamic than to static presentation of facial expressions and mosaic images for both valences. Dynamic presentation had no effect on the valence ratings. These results suggest that dynamic presentation of emotional facial expressions enhances the overall emotional experience without a corresponding qualitative change in the experience, although this effect is not specific to facial images.

Facial Expressions and Ambivalence: Looking for Conflict in All the Right Faces

The present study examined the impact of conflict over emotional expression on the nonverbal communication process between romantic partners. Fifty-four romantically involved female undergraduate students who scored within the upper or lower 30th percentile range on the Ambivalence over the Expression of Emotion Questionnaire (AEQ; King & Emmons, 1990) were recruited along with their romantic partners. The facial expressions of these women were examined during a conflict resolution task. Analyses indicated that highly ambivalent women expressed a greater number of negative facial expressions and shorter lasting positive facial expressions (measured with FACES; Kring & Sloan, 1992) than less ambivalent women. These expressions were not entirely explained by current mood, as ambivalence predicted a greater number of negative facial expressions, and a briefer display of positive facial expressions, above and beyond current levels of negative and positive affect. Furthermore, analyses indicated that the number of women's negative expressions predicted significant increases in men's dysphoria and marginal increases in men's anxiety, suggesting potential negative interactional patterns between ambivalent women and their partners.     

Moving Faces: Categorization of Dynamic Facial Expressions in American Sign Language by Deaf and Hearing Participants

American Sign Language (ASL) uses the face to express grammar and inflection, in addition to emotion. Research in this area has mostly used photographic stimuli. The purpose of this paper is to present data on how deaf signers and hearing non-signers recognize and categorize a variety of communicative facial expressions in ASL using dynamic stimuli rather than static pictures. Stimuli included six expression types chosen because they share overt similarities but express different content. Hearing participants were more accurate in their categorizations but expressed overall lower confidence regarding their performance.

Age and Gender Differences in Decoding Basic and Non-basic Facial Expressions in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

This study examined age and gender differences in decoding nonverbal cues in a school population of 606 (pre)adolescents (9–15 years). The focus was on differences in the perceived intensity of several emotions in both basic and non-basic facial expressions. Age differences were found in decoding low intensity and ambiguous faces, but not in basic expressions. Older adolescents indicated more negative meaning in these more subtle and complex facial cues. Girls attributed more anger to both basic and non-basic facial expressions and showed a general negative bias in decoding non-basic facial expressions compared to boys. Findings are interpreted in the light of the development of emotion regulation and the importance for developing relationships.

The Effects of Social Interaction and Personal Relationships on Facial Expressions

Previous studies have reported that the expression of smiles is facilitated by social interaction between partners. We examined the effects of social interaction and personal relationships on facial expressions in Japan. Pairs of friends and strangers seated next to each other (the no partition condition) or separated by a partition (the partition condition) were shown film clips aimed to elicit either positive or negative affect. Smiles were facilitated in the no partition condition in which participants interacted with each other. Further, the effect of social interaction on frowns differed depending on whether pairs were friends or strangers.     

Moving Smiles: The Role of Dynamic Components for the Perception of the Genuineness of Smiles

Three experiments were conducted to examine whether the temporal dynamics of Duchenne-smiles influenced the perception of smile authenticity. Realistic computer-generated Duchenne-smiles that varied in their onset- and offset-durations (Experiment 1), or only in their offset-duration (Experiment 2), or in both their onset- and apex-durations (Experiment 3), were created using Poser 4 software. Perceived genuineness varied monotonically with the duration of each manipulated dynamic component. The results are in accordance with Ekman and Friesens (1982) observations regarding the duration of smiles of enjoyment, which suggest that each dynamic component has a distinct duration range that can influence the perceived genuineness of smiles.We wish to thank Jesse Spencer-Smith for sharing the AU morph targets that have been developed in the context of his research.     

Emotional Empathy as Related to Mimicry Reactions at Different Levels of Information Processing

The hypotheses of this investigation were based on conceiving of facial mimicry reactions in face-to-face interactions as an early automatic component in the process of emotional empathy. Differences between individuals high and low in emotional empathy were investigated. The parameters compared were facial mimicry reactions, as represented by electromyographic (EMG) activity, when individuals were exposed to pictures of angry or happy faces. The present study distinguished between spontaneous facial reactions and facial expressions associated with more controlled or modulated emotions at different information processing levels, first at a preattentive level and then consecutively at more consciously controlled levels: 61 participants were exposed to pictures at three different exposure times (17, 56, and 2350 ms). A significant difference in facial mimicry reactions between high- and low-empathy participants emerged at short exposure times (56 ms), representing automatic, spontaneous reactions, with high-empathy participants showing a significant mimicking reaction. The low-empathy participants did not display mimicking at any exposure time. On the contrary, the low-empathy participants showed, in response to angry faces, a tendency to an elevated activation in the cheek region, which often is associated with smiling.     

How Real is that Smile? Mood Effects on Accepting or Rejecting the Veracity of Emotional Facial Expressions

Does mood influence people’s tendency to accept observed facial expressions as genuine? Based on recent theories of affect and cognition, two experiments predicted and found that negative mood increased and positive mood decreased people’s skepticism about the genuineness of facial expressions. After a mood induction, participants viewed images of faces displaying (a) positive, neutral, and negative expressions (Exp. 1), or (b) displays of six specific emotions (Exp. 2). Judgments of genuineness, valence, and confidence ratings were collected. As predicted, positive affect increased, and negative affect decreased the perceived genuineness of facial expressions, and there was some evidence for affect-congruence in judgments. The relevance of these findings for everyday nonverbal communication and strategic interpersonal behavior are considered, and their implications for recent affect-cognition theories are discussed.     

Do Socially Anxious Children Show Deficits in Classifying Facial Expressions of Emotions?

Studies with socially anxious adults suggest that social anxiety is associated with problems in decoding other persons' facial expressions of emotions. Corresponding studies with socially anxious children are lacking. The aim of the present study was to test whether socially phobic children show deficits in classifying facial expressions of emotions or show a response bias for negative facial expressions. Fifty socially anxious and 25 socially non-anxious children (age 8 to 12) participated in the study. Pictures of faces with either neutral, positive (joyful) or negative (angry, disgusted, sad) facial expressions (24 per category) were presented for 60 ms on a monitor screen in random order. The children were asked to indicate by pressing a key whether the facial expression was neutral, positive, or negative, and to rate how confident they were about their classification. With regard to frequency of errors the socially anxious children reported significantly more often that they saw emotions when neutral faces were presented. Moreover, reaction times were longer. However, they did not feel less certain about their performance. There is neither an indication of an enhanced ability to decode negative facial expressions in socially anxious children, nor was there a specific tendency to interpret neutral or positive faces as negative.     

Touching Behavior in Sport: Functional Components, Analysis of Sex Differences, and Ethological Considerations

Little research exists regarding sex differences in touching behavior in sport or recreational settings. This study investigates sex differences in amounts, types, and factors influencing same-sex touching in a sport context. Subjects were 119 members of four men's college varsity baseball teams and 52 members of three women's college varsity softball teams. All touches performed on-field between team members were recorded and classified using an ethogram designed for this study. As hypothesized, statistically significant differences were found in the following areas: females performed more touching behaviors than males, almost half of the behavior types observed were performed more frequently by one sex than the other, males performed touching behaviors more frequently at away than home games, females performed touching behaviors more frequently at home than away games, and females performed more touching behaviors than males after negative game events. The findings and implications are discussed in relation to the touching behavior literature, ethology, and comparative psychology.     

Decoding Basic and Non-basic Facial Expressions and Depressive Symptoms in Late Childhood and Adolescence

This study examined the relationship between decoding nonverbal cues and depressive symptoms in a general school population of 606 children and adolescents (9–15 years). The focus was on the perceived intensity of several emotions in both basic and non-basic facial expressions. The perceived intensities of anger and joy in low intensity facial expressions were related to depression. The higher the perceived intensity of anger the more depressed adolescents were, whereas the reversed effect was found for the perception of joy, but only in girls. These results suggest that the development of decoding biases in low intensity facial expressions may be useful for understanding the development of individual and gender differences in depression during adolescence.

Aging and the Effects of Facial and Prosodic Cues on Emotional Intensity Ratings and Memory Reconstructions

Young (M = 23 years) and older (M = 77 years) adults' interpretation and memory for the emotional content of spoken discourse was examined in an experiment using short, videotaped scenes of two young actresses talking to each other about emotionally-laden events. Emotional nonverbal information (prosody or facial expressions) was conveyed at the end of each scene at low, medium, and high intensities. Nonverbal information indicating anger, happiness, or fear, conflicted with the verbal information. Older adults' ability to differentiate levels of emotional intensity was not as strong (for happiness and anger) compared to younger adults. An incidental memory task revealed that older adults, more often than younger adults, reconstruct what people state verbally to coincide with the meaning of the nonverbal content, if the nonverbal content is conveyed through facial expressions. A second experiment with older participants showed that the high level of memory reconstructions favoring the nonverbal interpretation was maintained when the ages of the participants and actresses were matched, and when the nonverbal content was conveyed both through prosody and facial expressions.     

Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotion is Related to their Frequency in Everyday Life

Cross-cultural and laboratory research indicates that some facial expressions of emotion are recognized more accurately and faster than others. We assessed the hypothesis that such differences depend on the frequency with which each expression occurs in social encounters. Thirty observers recorded how often they saw different facial expressions during natural conditions in their daily life. For a total of 90 days (3 days per observer), 2,462 samples of seen expressions were collected. Among the basic expressions, happy faces were observed most frequently (31 %), followed by surprised (11.3 %), sad (9.3 %), angry (8.7 %), disgusted (7.2 %), and fearful faces, which were the least frequent (3.4 %). A significant amount (29 %) of non-basic emotional expressions (e.g., pride or shame) were also observed. We correlated our frequency data with recognition accuracy and response latency data from prior studies. In support of the hypothesis, significant correlations (generally, above .70) emerged, with recognition accuracy increasing and latency decreasing as a function of frequency. We conclude that the efficiency of facial emotion recognition is modulated by familiarity of the expressions.     

Temporal Aspects of Facial Displays in Person and Expression Perception: The Effects of Smile Dynamics,Head-tilt,and Gender

Recent work suggests that temporal aspects of facial displays influence the perception of the perceived authenticity of a smile. In the present research, the impact of temporal aspects of smiles on person and expression perception was explored in combination with head-tilt and gender. One hundred participants were shown different types of smiles (slow versus fast onset) in combination with three forms of head-tilt (none, left, or right) exhibited by six computer-generated male and female encoders. The encoders were rated for perceived attractiveness, trustworthiness, dominance, and the smiles were rated for flirtatiousness and authenticity. Slow onset smiles led to more positive evaluations of the encoder and the smiles. Judgments were also significantly influenced by head-tilt and participant and encoder gender, demonstrating the combined effect of all three variables on expression and person perception.

A Half Century of Mate Preferences: The Cultural Evolution of Values

The qualities people believe are important in selecting a marriage partner afford one domain for assessing human values. We examined the cultural evolution of these values over more than half a century. Building on existing data on mate preferences collected in 1939 (N= 628 ), 1956 (N= 120 ), 1967 (N= 566 ), and 1977 (N= 316 ), we collected data using the same instrument in 1984/1985 (N= 1,496 ) and in 1996 (N= 607 ) at geographically diverse locations. Several changes in values were documented across the 57‐year span. Both sexes increased the importance they attach to physical attractiveness in a mate. Both sexes, but especially men, increased the importance they attach to mates with good financial prospects. Domestic skills in a partner plummeted in importance for men. Mutual attraction and love climbed in importance for both sexes. The sexes converged in the ordering of the importance of different mate qualities, showing maximum similarity in 1996. Discussion speculates about causes of the cultural evolution of values.     

The Interaction of HIV Knowledge,Perceived Risk,and Sex Differences on Risky Sex

Objectives: Risky sexual behavior increases during college. HIV knowledge and risk perception have been inconsistent predictors of risky sex independently. Methods: This study tested the interaction between HIV knowledge, risk perception, and sex to predict risky sex in college students (N = 171; 52.0% female). Results: Women's HIV knowledge resulted in greater reports of risky sex when risk perception was low. Conversely, men's HIV knowledge translated into greater reports of risky sex when risk perception was high. Conclusions: Although preliminary, this study calls for nuanced models of risky sex and the inclusion of risk perception modules in HIV reduction programs.     

The Many Faces of a Neutral Face: Head Tilt and Perception of Dominance and Emotion

Based on the premise that human head tilt is homologous to animal dominance displays, we hypothesized that when a head is bowed, the face should be perceived as submissive, sad, displaying inferiority emotions (i.e., shame, embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, and respect) and, paradoxically, as contracting the zygomatic major muscle. Conversely, a raised head should be perceived as more dominant and displaying greater superiority emotions (i.e., contempt and pride). We conducted two experiments showing 3-D models of faces to 64 participants. The results confirmed our hypotheses and also showed that a raised head connotes happiness. In addition, we found a significant influence of the actors' sex on participants' perception, such as a bias towards perceiving stronger upward contraction of the mouth in female than male actors when the head is tilted. We discuss these findings within the context of evolution and social behavior.     

The Current Role of Post-Conviction Sex Offender Polygraph Testing in Sex Offender Treatment

SUMMARY

Polygraph testing is becoming increasingly important in sex offender treatment. Polygraph advocates cite dramatic increases in historical disclosures that presumably allow more precise targeting of treatment interventions, earlier detection of risky behaviors that often lead to new offenses, and improved treatment and supervision compliance. Based on this, they believe the procedure supports desirable behavior that continues to various degrees after treatment and supervision end. Opponents cite ethical problems related to inaccurate results, unproven accuracy rates, and the risk that examinees may be coerced into making false admissions. To counter these criticisms, proponents have developed standards, best practices, and examiner training and certification programs intended to reduce error rates and address ethical issues. Opponents argue that these measures have not been tested and that empirically established error rates and best practices may not be possible for a variety of reasons. This article reviews the current situation, leaving readers to decide the wisdom and ethics of using polygraph testing in their own practices.     

Contrasting Types of Puerto Rican Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)

Participants in this study were 182 men of Puerto Rican ancestry who lived in New York City and had sex with other men. They were recruited from various gay- and non-gay-identified environments. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to assess the participants' sexual attitudes and behavior. Based upon participants' self-labeling of their sexual behavior, four main groups were identified: straight MSM, bisexual MSM, gay MSM, and drag queens. Although similar in terms of age and the number of members infected with I-W, the four groups differed significantly on socioeconomic (SES), attitudinal, and behavioral parameters. It is postulated that MSM of low SES subscribe to stereotypical "machista" and "marianista" roles, while MSM of comparatively higher SES can feel more independent from those gender role expectations. It is concluded that Puerto Rican MSM are reachable and willing to participate in behavioral studies and behavioral change programs. Behavioral change programs must be sensitive to class and SES, tailored to different subgroups of MSM, and generated by a heterogeneous team that includes members of the target population.     

Sex Differences and HIV Risk Behaviors: The Interaction between the Experience of Multiple Types of Abuse and Self-Restraint on HIV Risk Behaviors

Adolescents with abuse histories have been shown to be at increased risk to acquire human immunodeficiency virus and sexually transmitted infections. In addition, teens with lower levels of self-restraint or higher levels of distress, such as those with psychiatric concerns, have also demonstrated increased sexual risk behaviors. This study explored sex differences in sexual risk behaviors among a sample of adolescents in a therapeutic/alternative high school setting. Moderated regression analysis showed that a lower level of self-restraint was associated with sexual risk behaviors in boys but not in girls. Rather, the interaction of self-restraint and multiple types of abuse was associated with greater sex risk within girls in this sample. Results suggest that girls and boys with abuse histories and low levels of self-restraint may have different intervention needs related to sexual risk behaviors.