Detecting Happiness: Perceiver Sensitivity to Enjoyment and Non-Enjoyment Smiles

The physiognomic distinctions between spontaneous enjoyment smiles and deliberate non-enjoyment smiles provide the social perceiver with a functional, accessible source of information to help regulate social interaction. Two experiments were performed to investigate whether perceivers were sensitive to this information in a contextually meaningful manner. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge whether a target individual was happy or not. The results revealed that participants were indeed sensitive to the differences between enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles. In Experiment 2, participants performed a priming task without any specific instruction to judge emotional state. Neutral expressions, non-enjoyment smiles and enjoyment smiles were employed as primes in a word valence identification task. The results demonstrated a clear trend indicative of perceiver sensitivity. When compared to a the baseline condition of a neutral expression prime, enjoyment but not non-enjoyment smiles facilitated identification of positive words.

Comparison of Deliberate and Spontaneous Facial Movement in Smiles and Eyebrow Raises

We investigated movement differences between deliberately posed and spontaneously occurring smiles and eyebrow raises during a videotaped interview that included a facial movement assessment. Using automated facial image analysis, we quantified lip corner and eyebrow movement during periods of visible smiles and eyebrow raises and compared facial movement within participants. As in an earlier study, maximum speed of movement onset was greater in deliberate smiles. Maximum speed and amplitude were greater and duration shorter in deliberate compared to spontaneous eyebrow raises. Asymmetry of movement did not differ within participants. Similar patterns contrasting deliberate and spontaneous movement in both smiles and eyebrow raises suggest a common pattern of signaling for spontaneous facial displays.

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.

Effects of Dynamic Attributes of Smiles in Human and Synthetic Faces: A Simulated Job Interview Setting

We examined the effects of the temporal quality of smile displays on impressions and decisions made in a simulated job interview. We also investigated whether similar judgments were made in response to synthetic (Study 1) and human facial stimuli (Study 2). Participants viewed short video excerpts of female interviewees exhibiting dynamic authentic smiles, dynamic fake smiles, or neutral expressions, and rated them with respect to a number of attributes. In both studies, perceivers’ judgments and employment decisions were significantly shaped by the temporal quality of smiles, with dynamic authentic smiles generally leading to more favorable job, person, and expression ratings than dynamic fake smiles or neutral expressions. Furthermore, authentically smiling interviewees were judged to be more suitable and were more likely to be short-listed and selected for the job. The findings show a high degree of correspondence in the effects created by synthetic and human facial stimuli, suggesting that temporal features of smiles similarly influence perceivers’ judgments and decisions across the two types of stimulus.

Is There an Ingroup Advantage in Recognizing Spontaneously Expressed Emotions?

Evidence for the ingroup advantage hypothesis in recognizing emotions comes from studies using specific types of posed expressions. A proposed source of this advantage has been culturally-specific ways of expressing emotions, known as cultural dialects (Elfenbein et al. Emotion 7(1):131–146, 2007). But to date, no study has used spontaneously produced expressions as stimuli in testing the hypothesis. We do so here. American and Japanese observers judged expressions produced by American and Japanese athletes immediately at the completion of a medal match from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. The ingroup hypothesis was not supported, suggesting that it occurs when posers mime an expression, but not when they spontaneously produce it in real life.

Busy Signal: Effects of Mobile Device Usage on Pedestrian Encounters

Mobile communication technology plays an increasingly pervasive role in everyday life. This study examined one aspect of this role, specifically, the effects of mobile device use on the micro-interactions of pedestrians as they approached and passed a confederate. Over 400 participants were observed in a 2 (group: mobile device vs. control) × 3 [condition: look-only (L); look and smile (LS); look, smile, and greeting (LSG)] factorial design study measuring participants’ looks, smiles, nods, and greetings toward the confederates. Log-linear analyses of the dependent measures provided qualified support for the predicted decreased responsiveness from mobile device users. Specifically, a group by condition interaction on smiles showed that significantly fewer mobile device users than controls smiled at the confederates in the LSG condition. In addition, a group by sex of participant interaction on greetings indicated that significantly fewer female mobile device users offered greetings than males and females in the other conditions. The processes potentially mediating these effects are discussed and the broader influence of mobile devices on the micro-interactions of pedestrians is considered.     

Reduced prizes and increased effort in contests

We study the general class of two-player public-policy contests and specify the asymmetry condition under which a more restrained government intervention that reduces the contestants’ prizes has the “perverse” effect of increasing their aggregate lobbying efforts.

---

What is child care? Lessons from time-use surveys of major English-speaking countries

This paper examines the definition and measurement of time devoted to child care in the diary-based surveys administered by the United States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. Detailed analysis of the relationship between measures of care activity and supervisory care in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) illustrate the larger conceptual issues at stake.

All Smiles are Not Created Equal: Morphology and Timing of Smiles Perceived as Amused, Polite, and Embarrassed/Nervous

We investigated the correspondence between perceived meanings of smiles and their morphological and dynamic characteristics. Morphological characteristics included co-activation of Orbicularis oculi (AU 6), smile controls, mouth opening, amplitude, and asymmetry of amplitude. Dynamic characteristics included duration, onset and offset velocity, asymmetry of velocity, and head movements. Smile characteristics were measured using the Facial Action Coding System (Ekman et al. 2002) and Automated Facial Image Analysis (Cohn and Kanade 2007). Observers judged 122 smiles as amused, embarrassed, nervous, polite, or other. Fifty-three smiles met criteria for classification as perceived amused, embarrassed/nervous, or polite. In comparison with perceived polite, perceived amused more often included AU 6, open mouth, smile controls, larger amplitude, larger maximum onset and offset velocity, and longer duration. In comparison with perceived embarrassed/nervous, perceived amused more often included AU 6, lower maximum offset velocity, and smaller forward head pitch. In comparison with perceived polite, perceived embarrassed/nervous more often included mouth opening and smile controls, larger amplitude, and greater forward head pitch. Occurrence of the AU 6 in perceived embarrassed/nervous and polite smiles questions the assumption that AU 6 with a smile is sufficient to communicate felt enjoyment. By comparing three perceptually distinct types of smiles, we found that perceived smile meanings were related to specific variation in smile morphological and dynamic characteristics.

The inverse plurality rule—an axiomatization

Under the ‘inverse plurality rule’, voters specify only their least preferred alternative. Our first result establishes that this rule is the only scoring rule that satisfies the minimal veto condition (MV). We then prove that the inverse plurality rule is characterized by MV and the four well known conditions that characterize scoring rules; namely, Anonymity (A), Neutrality (N), Reinforcement (RE) and Continuity (CO). Our new characterization result is related to the characterizations of approval voting and of the widely used plurality rule. We finally show how the axiomatization of the inverse plurality rule can be extended to the axiomatization of elementary scoring rules (vote for t-alternatives scoring rules). We are indebted to two anonymous referees for their most useful comments.

---

The scoring rules in an endogenous election

Plurality rule is mostly criticized from being capable of choosing an alternative considered as worst by a strict majority. This paper considers elections in which the agenda consists of potential candidates strategically choosing whether or not to enter the election. In this context, we examine the ability of scoring rules to fulfil the Condorcet criterion. We show for the case of three potential candidates that Plurality rule is the only scoring rule that satisfies a version of the Condorcet criterion in two cases: 1) when preferences are single-peaked and, 2) when preferences are single-dipped.

---

Social Enterprise in the United States and Europe: Understanding and Learning from the Differences

Since the 1980s both the United States and Europe have experienced a simultaneous expansion in social enterprise. However, little has been written comparing and contrasting American and European conceptions of social enterprise resulting in difficulty communicating on the topic and missed opportunities to learn and build on foreign experience. To address this need, this paper compares and contrasts American and European social enterprise through an extensive review of literature from the two regions and discussions with social enterprise researchers on both sides of the Atlantic. It outlines the definitions of social enterprise used by American and European academics and practitioners, identifies historical factors promoting and shaping different conceptions of social enterprise, and highlights the differing institutional and legal environments in which it operates. It concludes by identifying what Americans and Europeans can learn from each others’ experience with social enterprise.

Path to Poverty Alleviation: Marriage or Postsecondary Education?

We examined the role of human capital in determining economic well-being and marital status of mothers with children. We analyzed 1996 data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a nationally representative survey of 36,700 American households conducted by the Census Bureau. The results indicate that among the human capital variables postsecondary education significantly improves the economic well-being of mothers irrespective of their marital status. Also, educated mothers are more likely to be married. These findings are especially relevant as we debate the importance of marriage in poverty alleviation.

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.

Patterns of Gaze Between Parents and Children in European American and Mexican American Families

Mutual gaze has been shown to be a valuable channel of nonverbal communication. To examine mutual gaze between parents and children, 43 European American (EA) and 57 Mexican American (MA) families were coded on the occurrence of talking and gaze during a brief discussion. MA families showed lower levels of father-to-child gaze, mother-to-son gaze, and child-to-father gaze than EA families. MA families also showed less father–child mutual gaze, as well as less mother–child gaze for sons than EA families. Child gaze aversion was more common in European American families. Levels of gaze, father–child mutual gaze, and child gaze aversion all were positively correlated with acculturation. The importance of research exploring possible differences in function and meaning of gaze across cultural groups is emphasized.

The Structure of the Chinese Banking System and Credit Access Problems for SMEs

This paper examines the structure and the main characteristics of the Chinese banking industry. In particular, the paper analyses the problematic aspects of credit relations of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs are facing several problems in accessing the bank loans market, dominated by the political and contractual weight of state-owned enterprises. However, some recent reforms have improved the situation, a fundamental condition for additional positive results. Nevertheless, further and more pervasive modernization efforts are needed to consolidate these results and to develop the relationships between banks and SMEs.

Dichotomous preferences and the possibility of Arrovian social choice

Consider an individual whose judgments are always based on a fundamental criterion such as a political ideology or a religious doctrine. In a choice situation, he always prefers any alternative that is compatible with the criterion to any that is not. When individuals are allowed to have preference spaces restricted in this manner, we investigate Arrow-consistent domains. We observe that a diversity of attitudes is essential in order to escape an Arrovian impossibility.This paper received the Kanematsu Fellowship from RIEB, Kobe University in May 2002. We are much indebted to two anonymous referees of this journal, three anonymous referees of the Kanematsu Fellowship, Jun Iritani, William Thomson, and John Weymark for helpful comments. We also thank Takashi Kamihigashi, Tetsuya Kishimoto, Ryo-ichi Nagahisa, Hiroaki Nagatani, Tadashi Sekiguchi, Koji Shimomura, Tomoichi Shinotsuka, Koichi Suga, Makoto Tanaka, Ken Urai, and participants at the Kobe-Osaka Joint Seminar in Mathematical Economics at Osaka University in March 2001, the meeting of the Japanese Economic Association at Hiroshima Syudo University in May 2001, the Far Eastern Meeting of the Econometric Society in Kobe in July 2001, the Seventh Decentralization Conference at Waseda University in October 2001, the Sixth International Meeting of the Society for Social Choice and Welfare at Caltech in July 2002 for valuable suggestions. The first version was written while we were graduate students in Economics at Kobe University.

---

Bringing the Material Back In: Understanding the U.S. Position on Climate Change

This paper analyzes how natural resource interests have been translated into political outcomes in the form of American climate change policy. Incorporating data about natural resource use and national decision-making, this paper concludes that comprehending fully political decisions about global climate change in the United States requires us to recognize how land-use interests in the growth machine are translated into political outcomes. The findings of this paper suggest that, in order to understand social phenomena more fully, sociologists must recommit to studying the conjoint constitution of natural resources and social processes.

Chinese Contract Law and the Economic Reform

China’s previous contract laws had many contradictions and failed to meet the needs of China’s developing market economy. Although some problems still need to be dealt with, the unified contract law is more advanced, systematic and plays an important role in fostering and encouraging transactions.

Economic Status of Older Asians in the United States

Data from the 5-percent Census 2000 Public Use Microdata were utilized to examine the economic status of six Asian-only groups in the United States aged 65 and older. Japanese Americans’ economic status emulated that of older Whites; whereas, older Korean and Vietnamese economic status more closely resembled that of older Blacks. Regression results indicated that education, household size, and duration of immigration were significantly and positively related to household income for most of the Asian-only groups, supporting the theory that human capital, structural barriers, and acculturation all play a role in determination of household income for older Asian Americans.