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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Passing Encounters East and West: Comparing Japanese and American Pedestrian Interactions

This study examined the microinteractions of pedestrians in Japan and in the United States as they walked past a confederate. Specifically, the effects of culture, condition (avoid, look-only, and look plus smile) and sex of confederate on glances, smiles, nods, and greetings by passing pedestrians were examined in a field study on over 1000 participants. The hypotheses of (1) lower responsiveness in Japanese pedestrians than in American pedestrians and (2) increased responsiveness as a function of condition were supported in a series of log-linear analyses of pedestrian glances, smiles, nods, and greetings. Both of these main effects were, however, qualified by Culture X Condition interactions on smiles, nods, and greetings, with the large condition effects present in the American pedestrians, but absent in the Japanese pedestrians. The results are discussed in terms of the functions of glances, smiles, nods, and greetings in these brief encounters and how differing cultural norms affect Japanese and American responsiveness. Finally, the limitations of this study and the broader utility of this research paradigm are discussed.

Unions and Employment Growth: Evidence from State Economic Recoveries

We test the hypothesis that in an economic recovery, unionization negatively affects job creation. We examine state-level job growth following two recent recessions, those with troughs in November 1982 and March 1991. In the five years following the troughs, we assess whether variations across states in union membership and right-to-work laws affect the rate of job growth. We find evidence that links union influence to slower job growth during an economic recovery, a finding consistent with previous studies reporting that unions negatively affect average employment and employment growth.

How Wage Compression Affects Job Turnover

I use Swedish establishment-level panel data to test the hypothesis of Bertola and Rogerson (Eur Econ Rev 41:1147–1171 1997) of a positive relation between the degree of wage compression and job reallocation. Results indicate that the effect of wage compression on job turnover is positive and significant in the manufacturing sector. The wage compression effect is stronger on job destruction than on job creation, consistent with downward wage rigidity. Further results include a strong positive relationship between the fraction of temporary employees and job turnover and a negative relationship between the amount of working-time flexibility and job reallocation.

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.

Physical inactivity and working hour inflexibility: evidence from a U.S. sample of older men

Lack of time is the most frequently reported reason for lack of exercise. This study examines how restriction on the number of working hours affects individuals’ exercise decision. A structural model is constructed to describe the simultaneous decisions of employment and physical activity in the presence of working hour restriction. Using data from the 1992 Health and Retirement Study, this study finds that the working hour restriction is partly responsible for the physical inactivity among older American workers. When the working hour restriction is binding from below, an increase in the number of hours required on the job considerably reduces the probability of engaging in frequent exercise. The results imply that partial relaxation of working hour restrictions may be considered to promote frequent exercise.

On the influence of extreme parties in electoral competition with policy-motivated candidates

We study and compare equilibrium platforms in models of unidimensional electoral competition with two and four policy motivated parties. We first analyze the plurality game, where the party getting the most votes is elected and implements its proposed platform. Restrictions on the set of credible announcements are needed to get existence of equilibria. Comparing equilibria with two and four parties, we obtain that moderate parties react to the introduction of extreme parties by proposing the same or more extreme equilibrium platforms. We then study the proportional system, where the policy implemented is a weighted sum of the proposals, with the voting shares as weights. Here, the existence of extreme parties leads moderate ones to choose more centrist platforms. We finally test the robustness of our results with respect to, first, the enlargement of the strategy space to entry decisions and, second, to asymmetric distributions of voters' blisspoints.

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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.

An Economic Analysis of the Gap Between Desired and Actual Fertility: The Case of Spain

Family size is the outcome of sequential decisions influenced both by preferences and by ongoing changes in the environment where a family lives. During the last two decades, the gap between the number of children women prefer and their actual fertility has widened in Spain. The paper uses the 1985 and 1999 Spanish Fertility Surveys to study whether the tightening of the labor market and worsening of economic conditions in Spain during the last 20 years are important determinants of this change. I find that women facing high unemployment rates in their mid-twenties tend to restrict their fertility below their ideal level. Among women in the labor force, the stability of a public sector job lessens the difficulties of balancing employment and family and of achieving preferred fertility. Temporary contracts work in the opposite direction. Findings are robust to the inclusion of controls for within-couple discrepancies in either preferences or religious affiliation.

Temporal Distributions of Crime and Disorder in Casino and Non-Casino Zones

Research on the relationship between casinos and crime has yielded mixed conclusions. Some authors argue that casinos are crime attractors and provide fertile grounds for disorder in the surrounding communities. Others claim that the impact of casinos on the crime problem has been over-stated and that casinos in themselves are not crime generators. Relying on calls for service and incidents known to the police, this research reveals the specific spatial and temporal characteristics of all criminal and disorderly behaviors around casino venues.

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.

Do Work Demands and Resources Predict Work-to-Family Conflict and Facilitation? A Study of Iranian Male Employees

This study examined the effects of some work demands-resources on two dimensions of work-to-family interface among Iranian employees. The results of canonical correlation and multiple-regression showed that among work resources (i.e., social support and autonomy), social support was associated negatively with work-to-family conflict and autonomy was associated positively with work-to-family facilitation. Also, among work demands (i.e., job demands and working hours), job demands were associated with both work-to-family conflict and work-to-family facilitation. Unlike previous studies, working hours shows a positive association with work-to-family facilitation, which may be explained by the specific cultural context in Iran. The findings of the study will be of importance to employees and organizations.

Combining Stated and Revealed Preference Data to Construct an Empirical Examination of Intrahousehold Bargaining

Most analysis of intrahousehold decisions has been conducted using aggregate revealed preference data where preferences of individual agents are never observed, only the household consumption outcomes are observed. We examine household behavior in a bargaining framework by combining stated preference information from individual members of the household with revealed preference information on the household’s actual choices. The resulting model provides information on the degree to which the decision is the result of a bargaining process as well as information on the factors affecting bargaining power.

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.

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Imagined interactions,family money management patterns and coalitions,and attitudes toward money and credit

This study explores the imagined interactions college students have with their parents about money and credit, their attitudes toward credit and money, the ways they say their parents deal with financial decisions, and the communication coalitions regarding finances they perceive existing within their family. Students’ imagined interaction pleasantness is greatest when parents jointly form a plan for paying off credit card debt and lowest when parents argue. When family coalitions exist, students report more frequent imagined interactions. Imagined interaction frequency and pleasantness are related to credit and money attitudes.