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Spontaneous facial mimicry, liking and emotional contagion
... As a type of behavior matching, spontaneous facial mimicry of facial expressions while observing a face emerges within 1 s after stimulus onset [6,7]. Classical cases have demonstrated the use of electromyography (EMG) to record muscle-activation patterns similar to the presented face stimuli [6,[8][9][10][11][12][13]. Alternatively, participants were videotaped and their facial action patterns were coded for mimicry detection using the facial action coding system (FACS) [14][15][16][17]. ...
... The AU recognition framework uses linear kernel support vector machines for AU occurrence detection and support vector regression for AU intensity estimation [54], trained on the DISFA [55], SEMAINE [56], BP4D [57], UNBC-McMaster [58], Bosphorus [59], and FERA 2011 [60] datasets. AU classification has been validated with the DISFA dataset [55] and reported a mean Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.59 across 12 AUs (1,2,4,5,6,9,12,15,17,20,25, and 26; AU4: r = 0.70 and AU12: r = 0.85). ...
... An XGBoost classifier, Feat-XGB [67], was used as the AU detector, which used PCA-reduced HOG features for AU predictions, as with OpenFace [54]. It was trained for 20 AUs (1,2,4,5,6,7,9,10,12,14,15,17,18,20,23,24,25,26,28,43) using BP4D [57], BP4D+ [68], DISFA [55], DISFA+ [69], CK+ [70], JAFFE [71], Shoulder Pain [58], and EmotioNet [72] and validated using WIDER FACE [51], 300W [73], NAMBA [24], and BIWI-Kinect [74]. The average F1 score was 0.54 (AU4 = 0.64 and AU12 = 0.83) [42]. ...
Although electromyography (EMG) remains the standard, researchers have begun using automated facial action coding system (FACS) software to evaluate spontaneous facial mimicry despite the lack of evidence of its validity. Using the facial EMG of the zygomaticus major (ZM) as a standard, we confirmed the detection of spontaneous facial mimicry in action unit 12 (AU12, lip corner puller) via an automated FACS. Participants were alternately presented with real-time model performance and prerecorded videos of dynamic facial expressions, while simultaneous ZM signal and frontal facial videos were acquired. Facial videos were estimated for AU12 using FaceReader, Py-Feat, and OpenFace. The automated FACS is less sensitive and less accurate than facial EMG, but AU12 mimicking responses were significantly correlated with ZM responses. All three software programs detected enhanced facial mimicry by live performances. The AU12 time series showed a roughly 100 to 300 ms latency relative to the ZM. Our results suggested that while the automated FACS could not replace facial EMG in mimicry detection, it could serve a purpose for large effect sizes. Researchers should be cautious with the automated FACS outputs, especially when studying clinical populations. In addition, developers should consider the EMG validation of AU estimation as a benchmark.
... Findings in social psychology show that when we perceive others, our affective attitudes toward them modulate our responses to their face: consciously or unconsciously appreciating others affects whether, and to what extent, we respond with positive or negative emotions and corresponding facial mimicry (McIntosh, 2006;Bourgeois and Hess, 2008;van Baaren et al., 2009). Based on this premise, and on the similarity between the mechanisms of self and others' face perception, I argue that the perceptual processing of the mirror image is very likely influenced by the affective attitudes toward oneself. ...
... Individuals are more likely to manifest emotional contagion with people they like and feel emotionally connected to (Krebs, 1975). Emotional contagion occurs when an observer responds to others' emotional behavior with the same emotional expression (Zillman and Cantor, 1977;McIntosh, 2006). On the contrary, during the perception of strangers' faces, or of faces of people with whom there is no emotional connection, individuals show less emotional contagion ). ...
... Facial mimicry is modulated by a variety of factors (Bourgeois and Hess, 2008;Kraaijenvanger et al., 2017), and there is a bidirectional relationship between facial mimicry and social knowledge: Individuals mimicking more in response to others' facial expressions are normally rated as more likable and are more likely to trigger sympathy in the social partner (Duffy and Chartrand, 2015). In other words, responding with more facial muscles' activation during face-to-face interactions with others is likely going to make individuals nicer; at the same time, previously acquired sympathy or positive attitudes toward a person modulate the phenomenon of mimicry while perceiving their face (McIntosh, 2006;Bourgeois and Hess, 2008;Likowski et al., 2008;Kraaijenvanger et al., 2017). ...
In philosophical and psychological accounts alike, it has been claimed that mirror gazing is like looking at ourselves as others. Social neuroscience and social psychology offer support for this view by showing that we use similar brain and cognitive mechanisms during perception of both others’ and our own face. I analyse these premises to investigate the factors affecting the perception of one’s own mirror image. I analyse mechanisms and processes involved in face perception, mimicry, and emotion recognition, and defend the following argument: because perception of others’ face is affected by our feelings toward them, it is likely that feelings toward ourselves affect our responses to the mirror image. One implication is that negative self-feelings can affect mirror gazing instantiating a vicious cycle where the negative emotional response reflects a previously acquired attitude toward oneself. I conclude by discussing implications of this view for psychology and social studies.
... Significantly, most of the evidence so far suggests that adopting or mimicking emotional postures, gestures, vocalizations, etc., alters participants' affective state by inducing changes in experienced pleasantness (valence), but it does not produce new particular (i.e., discrete) emotional states by itself. More precisely, mimicking a positive or negative stimulus (e.g., an expression of joy, fear, anger, disgust, etc.) leads to changes in experienced valence in a manner congruent with the valence of the stimulus, but not necessarily to the induction of the same discrete emotion as the one observed (Flack, 2006;Hatfield et al., 1995;Hess & Blairy, 2001;Mcintosh, 2006;Neumann & Strack, 2000). It's notable, for instance, that participants' ratings of induced emotion in these studies showed a "bleeding effect" at odds with the notion of discrete emotions: when they reported feeling a negative emotion (e.g., disgust) they also reported feeling other negative ones simultaneously (e.g., anger and fear). ...
... Importantly, although the participants experienced perceived and induced emotions that are coherent with the arousal and/or valence characteristics of the music, their experiences were not limited to the induction of basic emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness, anger, fear, etc.), as predicted by the BRECVEMA framework. In contrast, our results are more consistent with the findings of previous experiments where participants who were asked to mimic nonmusical emotional stimuli reported experiencing a variety of emotions consistent with the valence of the observed stimuli (e.g., Flack, 2006;Hatfield et al., 1995;Hess & Blairy, 2001;Mcintosh, 2006;Neumann & Strack, 2000). The Sadness/Tenderness piece was associated with the induction of bittersweet low arousal emotions such as feeling mellowed ( Table S5 in Supplemental materials). ...
... This reasoning can also help explain the finding that mimicry has limited effects on emotional elicitation. Both the experiments reported here, and previous studies in which participants mimicked observed emotional expressions, have found that this manipulation facilitates and biases the perception and induction of coherent affective states (i.e., changes in valence and arousal), but it does not lead to the induction of full-blown, discrete emotional experiences (Flack, 2006;Hatfield et al., 1995;Hess & Blairy, 2001;Mcintosh, 2006;Neumann & Strack, 2000). This is true even in studies where participants observed and mimicked facial expressions, which are the type of stimuli with the greatest ability to communicate affective states . ...
Emotional contagion has been explained as arising from embodied simulation. The two most accepted theories of music-induced emotions presume a mechanism of internal mimicry: the BRECVEMA framework proposes that the melodic aspect of music elicits internal mimicry leading to the induction of basic emotions in the listener, and the Multifactorial Process Model proposes that the observation or imagination of motor expressions of the musicians elicits muscular and neural mimicry, and emotional contagion. Two behavioral studies investigated whether, and to what extent, mimicry is responsible for emotion contagion, and second, to what extent context for affective responses in the form of visual imagery moderates emotional responses. Experiment 1 tested whether emotional contagion is influenced by mimicry by manipulating explicit vocal and motor mimicry. In one condition, participants engaged in mimicry of the melodic aspects of the music by singing along with the music, and in another, participants engaged in mimicry of the musician’s gestures when producing the music, by playing along (“air guitar”-style). The experiment did not find confirmatory evidence for either hypothesized simulation mechanism, but it did provide evidence of spontaneous visual imagery consistent with the induced and perceived emotions. Experiment 2 used imagined rather than performed mimicry, but found no association between imagined motor simulation and emotional intensity. Emotional descriptions read prior to hearing the music influenced the type of perceived and induced emotions and support the prediction that visual imagery and associated semantic knowledge shape listeners’ affective experiences with music. The lack of evidence for the causal role of embodied simulation suggests that current theorization of emotion contagion by music needs refinement to reduce the role of simulation relative to other mechanisms. Evidence for induction of affective states that can be modulated by contextual and semantic associations suggests a model of emotion induction consistent with constructionist accounts.
... Vivre en soi l'expérience somatosensorielle et motrice d'uneémotion, qu'on perçoit chez quelqu'un d'autre, renvoie au processus de la conta- gionémotionnelle (Lundqvist and Dimberg 1995;Dimberg and Thunberg 2012;Sato et al. 2013;Hess and Fischer 2014).Étant donné la composante motrice de l'émotion, la contagionémotionnelle serait associée au mimétisme facial (McIntosh 2006). Bien que certains auteurs (Hess and Blairy 2001) mettent en doute la relation entre le mimétisme facial et la contagionémotionnelle, desétudes ont montré une possible association entre ces deux phénomènes. ...
... Bien que certains auteurs (Hess and Blairy 2001) mettent en doute la relation entre le mimétisme facial et la contagionémotionnelle, desétudes ont montré une possible association entre ces deux phénomènes. En effet, des expériences ont montré que les personnes, qui ont produit un mimétisme facial, ontégalement rapporté avoir ressenti l'émotion correspondanteà l'expression faciale (McIntosh 2006;Niedenthal and Brauer 2012;Winkielman et al. 2015). La relation entre la contagioń emotionnelle et le mimétisme facial s'appuieégalement sur des résultats d'études qui montrent que lorsque le mimétisme est bloqué, l'expériencé emotionnelle est perturbée (Niedenthal et al. 2017). ...
... Quatrièmement, nous supposons que la réponseémotionnelle serait proportionnelleà l'expressivité de l'image. Si l'on prend en considération la littérature mentionnant la relation entre la contagionémotionnelle et le mimétisme facial (McIntosh 2006;Niedenthal and Brauer 2012;Winkielman et al. 2015;Niedenthal et al. 2017;Finzi and Rosenthal 2014;Wollmer et al. 2012), les icones facialesà forte intensité expressive devraientêtre plus susceptibles de déclencher la contagionémotionnelle que leurs pairsà faible intensité expressive. On escompte, donc, un score de l'émotion partagée corréléà celui de l'intensité de l'expression. ...
This thesis deals with the relationship with facial representations in art (e.g. portraits, busts, masks, etc.), referred to, here, as "facial icons". This relationship is examined in the light of embodied emotion. The hypothesis is that facial icons might trigger facial mimicry and emotional contagion in the same way as human facial expressions. This thesis places the issue within Alfred Gell's theory of art agency, suggesting that facial mimicry and emotional contagion are cognitive means that might participate in the abduction of the agency of facial icons. The approach is interdisciplinary, it proposes a hypothesis in an anthropological framework, then approaches it according to a methodology of cognitive sciences. Experimental studies (questionnaire, EMG, SAM) are conducted to test parts of the hypothesis.
［Original: Cette thèse porte sur la relation avec les représentations de visage dans l'art (ex. portraits, bustes, masques,etc.), dénommées, ici, "les icones faciales". Cette relation est examinée à la lumière de l'émotion incarnée. L'hypothèse est que les icones faciales déclencheraient un mimétisme facial et une contagion émotionnelle de la même manière que les expressions faciales humaines. Cette thèse inscrit la problématique dans la théorie de l'agentivité de l'art d'Alfred Gell, suggérant que le mimétisme facial et la contagion émotionnelle sont des moyens cognitifs qui participeraient à l'abduction de l'agentivité des icones faciales. L'approche est interdisciplinaire, elle propose une hypothèse dans un cadre anthropologique, ensuite l'aborde suivant une méthodologie des sciences cognitives. Des études expérimentales (questionnaire, EMG, SAM) sont menées pour tester des parties de l'hypothèse.］
... Subjects that have recently experienced social exclusion tend to mimic their valuable partners more than subjects who did not suffer the same negative experience Chartrand 2005, 2012;Over and Carpenter 2009;Lakin et al. 2008). People mimic ingroup members, such as kin and friends, more than outgroup members such as strangers (Palagi et al. 2020;Bourgeois and Hess 2008;Likowski et al. 2008;McIntosh 2006;Tickle-Degnen 2006;Yabar et al. 2006). ...
... According to the data indicating that young people, and particularly women, make a large use of smartphones during their social interactions (Lee et al. 2016;Srivastava 2005;Campbell 2005), we expect that young subjects, especially women, are more infected by seeing others using smartphones. If mimicry in the use of objects, as it occurs for facial and bodily mimicry (Palagi et al. 2020;Stel et al. 2010;Likowski et al. 2008;Bourgeois and Hess 2008;McIntosh 2006;Tickle-Degnen 2006;Yabar et al. 2006), is predictive of social bonding, we expect that the mimicry in the use of smartphones follows a positive gradient of familiarity from strangers to kin. Lastly, if communal eating has a role in maintaining people under live social sphere by reducing their urge to mimic others in navigating in virtual interactions, we expect that people show lower mimicry response in the use of smartphones under feeding contexts. ...
... Contrary to other kinds of mimicry (Palagi et al. 2020;Stel et al. 2010;Likowski et al. 2008;Bourgeois and Hess 2008;McIntosh 2006;Tickle-Degnen 2006;Yabar et al. 2006), we did not find any effect of age, sex and level of familiarity on the occurrence of the mimicry response, thus suggesting that mimicry in the use of smartphones is not liable to either individual (sex, age) or social preferences (familiarity). The period of the day had a significant effect on the occurrence of mimicry that peaked from 07.00 am to 01.00 pm (Fig. 2). ...
By gathering data on people during their ordinary daily activities, we tested if looking at, but not manipulating, smartphones led to a mimicry response in the observer. Manipulating and looking at the device (experimental condition), more than its mere manipulation (control condition), was critical to elicit a mimicry response in the observer. Sex, age and relationship quality between the experimenter and the observer had no effect on the smartphone mimicry response that tended to decrease during social meals. Due to the role of food as a tool in increasing social affiliation, it is possible that during communal eating, people engage in other forms of mimicry involving facial expressions and postures rather than the use of objects. Understanding the ethological mechanisms of the use of smartphones at everyday-social scale could unveil the processes at the basis of the widespread/increasing use of these devices at a large scale.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10164-021-00701-6.
... The P3a has been used to investigate orientation toward speech sound changes in language-related neurodevelopmental disorders (Hämäläinen et al., 2008;Lovio et al., 2012) including ASD 2006;2007;Čeponienė et al., 2003;Yu et al., 2015). Children with ASD (LI) Lepistö et al., 2005), and children with ASD (no LI) (Lepistö et al., 2006) were shown to have diminished P3a amplitudes for frequency changes in Finnish phonemes but not in tones (Ceponiené et al., 2003) or corresponding changes in non-speech sounds (Ceponiené et al., 2003;Lepistö et al., 2005;2006), indicating atypical orienting to pitch changes in speech in children with ASD. ...
... The P3a has been used to investigate orientation toward speech sound changes in language-related neurodevelopmental disorders (Hämäläinen et al., 2008;Lovio et al., 2012) including ASD 2006;2007;Čeponienė et al., 2003;Yu et al., 2015). Children with ASD (LI) Lepistö et al., 2005), and children with ASD (no LI) (Lepistö et al., 2006) were shown to have diminished P3a amplitudes for frequency changes in Finnish phonemes but not in tones (Ceponiené et al., 2003) or corresponding changes in non-speech sounds (Ceponiené et al., 2003;Lepistö et al., 2005;2006), indicating atypical orienting to pitch changes in speech in children with ASD. Further, phoneme changes and corresponding non-speech sound changes were found to elicit a reduced P3a in children with ASD (LI) . ...
... Facial electromyography (facial EMG) can reflect human psychophysiological correlates of different emotional or cognitive situations (Dimberg, 1990a). In adults, facial emotional expressions were often reported to elicit rapid facial reactions (RFRs) (Dimberg et al., 1990a;2000;Mathersul et al., 2013;McDonald et al., 2011;McIntosh, 2006). Activation of the zygomaticus major muscle (zygomaticus; raises the cheek in a smile) is associated with presentation of happy faces or positive stimuli, and activation of the corrugator supercilii muscle (corrugator; knits the brows in a scowl) with angry faces or negative stimuli (Dimberg and Thunberg, 1998;Dimberg et al., 2000;McDonald et al., 2011). ...
The present thesis investigated processing of words and speech prosody in school-aged typically developed children and two groups of children with ASD: those with accompanying language impairments and those with no accompanying language impairments. To this end, auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for a Finnish word uttered with different emotional connotations (neutral, scornful, sad, and commanding). Two of the thesis studies included a behavioral prosody discrimination task, and in one study, facial electromyographic (facial EMG) reactions were recorded for the above-mentioned speech stimuli.
... Emotions appear to be contagious (Dezecache, Eskenazi, & Grèzes, 2016;Doherty, 1997). Examples abound: there is the phenomenon of laugher contagion (Provine, 2012); mothers share the distress of their children (Manini et al., 2013); friends tend to converge on their feelings (McIntosh, 2006); 2-or 4-day-old newborns cry when they hear the cry of another newborn, but not when they hear another noise (Simner, 1971). Clinical psychologists are likely to catch their patients' feelings, especially in cases of depression where expressions of sadness might be especially salient (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1993). ...
... This view of emotional contagion as a mimicry-related phenomenon was already present in the very formulation of the notion of empathy (Lipps, 1903's "Einfühlung") 2 , but has been mostly elaborated by Hatfield (Hatfield et al., 1992(Hatfield et al., , 1993(Hatfield et al., , 2009. This view has become commonplace (Darwall, 1998;de Waal, 2012;Doherty, 1997;McIntosh, 2006;Prochazkova & Kret, 2017), possibly because it is grounded in the mirror neuron system in our brains, which works as a perception-motor link. Hence, the mirror neuron system becomes the common mechanism mediating both phenomena, i.e. mimicry and emotional contagion (Blakemore & Frith, 2005;De Waal, 2008;Rizzolatti, 2005). ...
... Therefore, emotional contagion is said to consist of "the tendency to automatically synchronize and mimic expressions, vocalizations, postures and movements with those of another person, and consequently, to converge emotionally" (Hatfield et al., 1993, p.5). At some other times, motor mimicry is viewed as an instance of emotional contagion (McIntosh, 2006). ...
Emotional contagion is a phenomenon that has attracted much interest in recent times. However, the main theory, mimicry theory, fails to properly address its many facets. In particular, we will focus on two shortcomings: the elicitation of emotional contagion is not context-independent, and there can be cases of emotional contagion without motor mimicry. We contend that a general theory of emotion elicitation (such as Scherer's Component Process Model of Emotion) is better suited to account for these features, because of its multi-level appraisal component. From this standpoint, emotional contagion is viewed as a particular kind of emotional response that involves the same components and processes of emotional responses in general.
... Similar results were found by manipulating liking. For instance, McIntosh (2006) found that participants showed less mimicry in response to "unlikeable" individuals or strangers compared to likable individuals or friends (McIntosh, 2006). In some cases, participants even tend to produce incongruent mimicry in reaction to negative characters (Likowski et al., 2008) or to dissimilar counterparts (Olszanowski et al., 2022). ...
... Similar results were found by manipulating liking. For instance, McIntosh (2006) found that participants showed less mimicry in response to "unlikeable" individuals or strangers compared to likable individuals or friends (McIntosh, 2006). In some cases, participants even tend to produce incongruent mimicry in reaction to negative characters (Likowski et al., 2008) or to dissimilar counterparts (Olszanowski et al., 2022). ...
Affiliation is both an antecedent and a consequence of emotional mimicry (i.e., imitating a counterpart’s emotional expression). Thus, interacting with a disliked partner can decrease emotional mimicry, which in turn can further decrease liking. This perpetuating circle has not been investigated in the context of mental health stigma yet. The present study tested the influence of the label “schizophrenia” on liking, interpersonal closeness, and emotional mimicry. In an online experiment (n=201), participants recruited from the general population saw several videos of actors displaying emotional expressions. Actors were described with one of four labels: “schizophrenia”, “healthy”, “diabetes”, and a negative adjective (e.g., “hot-tempered”). Emotional mimicry was measured using OpenFace 2.2. Liking and interpersonal closeness were assessed with questionnaires. Overall, compared to all other labels, participants reported less liking and interpersonal closeness to the actor with the schizophrenia label. However, no effect on emotional mimicry was found. The decreased liking of the schizophrenia actors was explained by a lack of knowledge about schizophrenia and the explicit stigma of schizophrenia. Our study contributes to the literature by highlighting the need to reduce the stigma of schizophrenia.
... To investigate whether right IFG and pSTS activity modulated by the presentation conditions was associated with facial mimicry, we estimated the parametric effects of congruency-weighted contrasts of ZM and CS responses. Congruent EMG responses for positive expressions included contraction (positive response) of the ZM and relaxation (negative response) of the CS, and vice versa for negative expressions ( McIntosh, 2006 ;McIntosh et al., 2006 ). For each trial, congruent ZM and CS responses were coded as 1 and incongruent responses were coded as 0. Trial-wise mimicking EMG responses (for positive expressions) were estimated as congruency-weighted contrasts of ZM and CS responses, and operationalized as [ZM congruency (1 or 0) × run-wise normalized ZM responses] − [CS congruency (1 or 0) × run-wise normalized CS responses]. ...
... During social alignment, emotional contagion changed the trajectory of an agent's emotional state ( Gross, 2015 ). As both motor mirroring and emotional empathy facilitate emotional contagion ( Hatfield et al., 2014 ;McIntosh, 2006 ), the alignment process can involve emotion appraisal ( Paulus et al., 2013 ) and constructive processes ( Gross and Feldman Barrett, 2011 ), and the resulting emotional state would be empathic, vicarious, and simulated ( Paulus et al., 2013 ). Indeed, although our affective ratings and EMG results showed interactions between emotion and presentation conditions, univariate activity and effective connectivity in the MNS and amygdala were modulated by the presentation condition. ...
Facial expressions are indispensable in daily human communication. Previous neuroimaging studies investigating facial expression processing have presented pre-recorded stimuli and lacked live face-to-face interaction. Our paradigm alternated between presentations of real-time model performance and pre-recorded videos of dynamic facial expressions to participants. Simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and facial electromyography activity recordings, as well as post-scan valence and arousal ratings were acquired from 44 female participants. Live facial expressions enhanced the subjective valence and arousal ratings as well as facial muscular responses. Live performances showed greater engagement of the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), right amygdala and right fusiform gyrus, and modulated the effective connectivity within the right mirror neuron system (IFG, pSTS, and right inferior parietal lobule). A support vector machine algorithm could classify multivoxel activation patterns in brain regions involved in dynamic facial expression processing in the mentalizing networks (anterior and posterior cingulate cortex). These results indicate that live social interaction modulates the activity and connectivity of the right mirror neuron system and enhances spontaneous mimicry, further facilitating emotional contagion.
... Coordinating gestures and movements with one another has been proposed as one of the fundamental mechanisms underlying the establishment and maintenance of human social bonds (Bernieri & Rosenthal, 1991). The existing literature points towards a bidirectional, conducive relationship between interpersonal coordination and affiliation: not only does interpersonal coordination increase liking between the interaction partners (Valdesolo & DeSteno, 2011), traits that evoke likeability, rapport, and similarity also increase the degree of interpersonal coordination (e.g., McIntosh, 2006;Miles et al., 2010;Néda et al., 2000). Considering that most research questions necessitate an experimental set-up without uncontrolled biases resulting from pre-existing differences in rapport between the interaction partners, the need for novel and unbiased interpersonal coordination paradigms becomes clear. ...
... Miles et al. (2010) found that participants were less likely to synchronize their movements with a confederate who arrived late for the experiment compared to one who arrived on time (Miles et al., 2010). Similarly, likeable confederates are mimicked more than unlikeable confederates (McIntosh, 2006) and in-group members are mimicked more than out-group members (Mondillon et al., 2007). Even sharing the same name was found to lead to more coordinated behavior (Guéguen & Martin, 2009). ...
Moving in synchrony with one another is a fundamental mechanism that maintains human social bonds. Yet, not all individuals are equally likely to coordinate their behaviors with others. The degree of interpersonal coordination is greatly influenced by pre-existing characteristics of the interacting partners, like the cultural homogeneity of a group, shared goals, and the likability of the other person. Considering that most research questions necessitate an experimental setup without such uncontrolled biases, we created a novel, unbiased paradigm: a human-avatar body sway synchronization paradigm. Participants' body sway was measured by a force plate while being exposed to a medio-laterally moving avatar. Forty-nine participants were tested in a social condition (motionless vs. moving avatar) and a non-social control condition (motionless vs. moving column). The results revealed that participants increased their body sway on their medio-lateral axis while the avatar was moving. The participants did not increase their body sway in the non-social control condition, indicating that the participant's movement was not simply caused by a basal motion perception process. The current study builds a methodological fundament that can help to reduce biases due to pre-existing rapport between interaction partners and serves as a valuable experimental paradigm for future synchrony studies.
... This is known as "emotional contagion," which is feeling in oneself the mimicked emotion (Dimberg & Thunberg, 2012;Hess & Fischer, 2014;Sato et al., 2013). Indeed, experiments had shown that facial mimicry is accompanied by a self-report of the corresponding emotion (McIntosh, 2006). Furthermore, when mimicry is prevented, emotional experience and emotional information processing might be disturbed (Niedenthal et al., 2017). ...
... The above studies (Finzi & Rosenthal, 2014;McIntosh, 2006;Wollmer et al., 2012) showed that facial mimicry might help (or at least be associated with) emotional contagion between individuals when interacting. Consequently, the facial mimicry process is not a mere motor reaction, but also contributes to emotional interactions (Beall et al., 2008;Hess & Fischer, 2013;Prochazkova & Kret, 2017). ...
Facial mimicry is a reaction to facial expressions. It plays a role in social interaction. Indeed, scholars associated facial mimicry with emotional contagion and understanding others' mental states such as intentions. This is the case for facial mimicry toward human facial expressions, but we know that facial expressions are widely depicted in art through face representations (visual creations that depict facial expressions). However, despite face representation involvement in social interactions, facial reactions toward face representations in art are still unknown. The reason could be that interaction with art objects is usually analyzed within anthropology and art theories, such as conveying social agencies (a desire of action, intentions). Here, we show that facial mimicry is also observed toward face representations. This could be a means that might facilitate social interaction including emotions. Using the electromyography technique, we could show that participants mimic involuntarily face representations when these depict mouth expressions. Participant's zygomaticus and depressor were significantly activated when the pictures depict an expression including zygomaticus or depressor representation respectively. This result led us to infer that when it comes to mouth expressions, face representations in art might trigger spontaneously emotional contagion (of the expressed emotion). It might also convey information about the expressed mental states, which might help to indicate social agencies. Mimicry could participate to explain partly the social agencies of art, that might be no more just abstract concepts, but could find a real correlate in cognitive processes.
... Mimicry is thought to act as a social regulator by promoting affiliation and reinforcing social bonds (Hess & Fischer, 2013;Lakin & Chartrand, 2003;Wang & Hamilton, 2012). Individuals mimic more those whom they like and like more those who mimic them (Duffy & Chartrand, 2015;McIntosh, 2006;Neufeld & Chakrabarti, 2016;Stel et al., 2009), a bidirectional link that strengthens the interpersonal relationship (van der Schalk, . Mimicry can also be used to ameliorate unfavourable social situations. ...
... In contrast, mimicking someone with whom one has a negative relationship or does not want to bond could be seen as socially inappropriate and lead to negative consequences. In line with this idea, research has shown that people tend to preferentially mimic agents they like and inhibit mimicry when interacting with a disliked person (Blocker & McIntosh, 2016;Likowski et al., 2008;McIntosh, 2006;Stel et al., 2009). Similarly, mimicry tends to be up-regulated when observing actions or specific emotional reactions of in-group members compared to out-group members (Bourgeois & Hess, 2008;Guéguen & Martin, 2009;Yabar et al., 2006). ...
In der vorliegenden Dissertation werden vier Studien vorgestellt, in denen untersucht wurde, wie altrozentrische (Mimikry) und egozentrische (Selbstprojektion) Prozesse der sozialen Kognition in Abhängigkeit vom sozialen Kontext und persönlichen Dispositionen reguliert werden. Studie 1 zeigte, dass die Tendenz, fröhliche Gesichtsausdrücke anderer nachzuahmen abhängig von dem mit der beobachteten Person assoziierten Belohnungswert ist. Die Auswirkung der Belohnung ging jedoch weder in die vorhergesagte Richtung, noch konnten wir einen Einfluss von Oxytocin, einem Hormon, das der Neurobiologie der sozialen Anpassung zugrunde liegt, finden. Studie 2 zeigte, im Vergleich zu vorherigen Studien, keine allgemeine Verbesserung der automatischen Nachahmung nach direktem Blickkontakt im Vergleich zum abgewandten Blick. Wir konnten jedoch potenzielle dispositionelle Faktoren (z.B. autistische Eigenschaften) identifizieren, denen unterschiedlichen Mimikry-Reaktionen auf den Blickkontakt zugrunde liegen könnten. Studie 3 kombinierte kurze Phasen der Emotionsinduktion mit psychophysischen Messungen der Emotionswahrnehmung. Es zeigte sich, dass emotionale Gesichtsausdrücke tendenziell als fröhlicher beurteilt werden, wenn Personen angeben, dass sie sich fröhlich im Vergleich zu traurig fühlen. Emotionale egozentrische Verzerrungen wurden in Studie 4 erneut untersucht. Im Gegensatz zu unseren Vorhersagen fanden wir jedoch keine stärkeren egozentrischen Verzerrungen, wenn die Teilnehmenden emotionale Gesichtsausdrücke von ähnlichen im Vergleich zu unähnlichen Personen beurteilten. In allen Studien fanden wir Hinweise für den kontextabhängigen Charakter der sozialen Kognition. Allerdings konnten wir einige der in der Literatur berichteten Phänomene nicht replizieren. Diese Ergebnisse unterstreichen die Notwendigkeit, die Robustheit und Generalisierbarkeit früherer Befunde systematisch neu zu bewerten.
... Furthermore, these mimicked individuals reported smoother, more harmonious interactions (Chartrand and Bargh 1999, Study 2). Altogether these findings demonstrate a bidirectional relationship between liking/rapport and mimicry: When rapport or liking of another is present, increased mimicry occurs (e.g., Bavelas et al. 1986;LaFrance 1979;LaFrance and Broadbent 1976;McIntosh 2006), and being mimicked by another leads to increased liking and rapport with that person (Chartrand and Bargh 1999). Subsequent investigations reveal that individuals utilize mimicry (nonconsciously), especially when liking and rapport is the goal in an interaction. ...
... Although little research has directly focused on the emotional outcomes of behavioral mimicry, multiple related lines of research suggest affect should be impacted by mimicry. Research in the domain of facial mimicry provides evidence that the mimicry-liking link influences emotional contagion (McIntosh 2006). This research focuses primarily on facial mimicry due to the primary role of the face in conveying emotional states, whereby the strongest evidence for the link between emotional contagion is associated with facial mimicry (Hatfield et al. 1992). ...
The current research tested how expectations and mimicry in an interracial interaction influence positive and negative affect. Existing research suggests that individuals do not expect mimicry, a behavior that should otherwise engender liking, in interracial interactions. Although past research has focused on how Whites’ expectations for interracial interactions leads to poor experiences, the present research hypothesized that expectations and nonverbal behaviors should impact outcomes. Experiences that are consistent with expectations were predicted to have a positive impact on mood, whereas experiences that violate expectations were predicted to have a negative impact on mood. Among a sample of White participants, three sources of interaction expectations were measured: motivation to respond without prejudice, meta-stereotypes, and positive intergroup expectancies. Subsequently, these White participants interacted with a Black research confederate who either mimicked or counter-mimicked them in an interaction. Findings with internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS) and meta-stereotypes were in support of predictions: as Whites’ IMS decreased and as meta-stereotypes increased, more positive emotional outcomes ensued when counter-mimicked by a Black interaction partner—an expectation confirming experience. Findings with positive intergroup expectancies ran counter to predictions: Under counter-mimicry, emotional outcomes became more positive as expectations were more optimistic. The findings suggest that individual differences play an important role in the experience of mimicry in interracial interactions. More research is critically needed to understand when and how mimicry can be employed to improve intergroup relations.
... Additionally, we decided to recruit pairs of friends expecting that it may increase learning efficiency, which has been shown to be enhanced when the learning model is perceived as similar, for example as he or she belongs to the same social group 10,11 . Moreover, it has been shown that interpersonal liking increases emotional mimicry 18 , which is yet another factor involved in emotional contagion 19 . It has also been suggested that behaviors and emotional expressions of social ingroup members are mimicked preferentially, playing a role in social learning 20 . ...
... Such reactions could not be influenced once the experiment started and were not selected through video editing before the experiment 15 . While this improved realism, it might have also increased ambiguity (leading to lowered rate of contingency awareness), since spontaneous displays of emotions are smaller in amplitude and have different internal timing than posed emotional expressions 18 . The ambiguity, however, should have been reduced by the fact that the observers were familiar with the demonstrators and thus more likely to be sensitive to their emotional expressions. ...
Learning to avoid threats often occurs by observing others. Most previous research on observational fear learning (OFL) in humans has used pre-recorded standardized video of an actor and thus lacked ecological validity. Here, we aimed to enhance ecological validity of the OFL by engaging participants in a real-time observational procedure (35 pairs of healthy male friends, age 18–27). One of the participants watched the other undergo a differential fear conditioning task, in which a conditioned stimulus (CS+) was paired with an aversive electric shock and another stimulus (CS−) was always safe. Subsequently, the CS+ and CS− were presented to the observer to test the OFL. While the friend’s reactions to the shock elicited strong skin conductance responses (SCR) in all observers, subsequent differential SCRs (CS+ > CS−) were found only when declarative knowledge of the CS+/US contingency (rated by the participants) was acquired. Contingency-aware observers also showed elevated fear potentiated startle responses during both CS+ and CS− compared to baseline. We conclude that our real-time procedure can be effectively used to study OFL. The procedure allowed for dissecting two components of the OFL: an automatic emotional reaction to the response of the demonstrator and learning about stimulus contingency.
... Automatic mimicry may facilitate emotion perception or recognition via an embodied mechanism 9,10 . It also enhances interpersonal synchronization 11 , which further facilitates emotion contagion [12][13][14] , empathy 15,16 , and social interaction 17,18 . ...
... For each signal, the absolute values plus one was natural log-transformed to correct for the right-skewness of the raw data distribution. This transformation is commonly applied to EMG data to reduce the impact of extreme values 13,[52][53][54][55] . The log-transformed data were used in the main text to show results in a manner comparable to the approach used in previous studies. ...
Facial expression is an integral aspect of non-verbal communication of affective information. Earlier psychological studies have reported that the presentation of prerecorded photographs or videos of emotional facial expressions automatically elicits divergent responses, such as emotions and facial mimicry. However, such highly controlled experimental procedures may lack the vividness of real-life social interactions. This study incorporated a live image relay system that delivered models' real-time performance of positive (smiling) and negative (frowning) dynamic facial expressions or their prerecorded videos to participants. We measured subjective ratings of valence and arousal and facial electromyography (EMG) activity in the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles. Subjective ratings showed that the live facial expressions were rated to elicit higher valence and more arousing than the corresponding videos for positive emotion conditions. Facial EMG data showed that compared with the video, live facial expressions more effectively elicited facial muscular activity congruent with the models' positive facial expressions. The findings indicate that emotional facial expressions in live social interactions are more evocative of emotional reactions and facial mimicry than earlier experimental data have suggested.
... Others have proposed that more than one process may be at play (Beall et al., 2008;Lee et al., 2008;McIntosh, 2006;Moody & McIntosh, 2011;Moody et al., 2007;Rymarczyk et al., 2018). This was supported by fMRI studies that found that facial reactions to facial expressions correlated with neural activations in the inferior frontal gyrus and supplementary motor area, that are thought to reflect motor simulation, as well as in the insula and amygdala, that are related to emotional processing (Lee et al., 2008;Rymarczyk et al., 2018). ...
... Nonetheless, it is possible that when stronger emotional elicitation is involved, emotion may be an influencing factor on facial response tendencies. This was demonstrated in mimicry studies finding facial fear reactions to angry expressions after fear induction (Moody et al., 2007) and stronger matching to smiles of liked people (McIntosh, 2006). ...
Perceiving emotional expressions automatically triggers a tendency to react with a matching facial expression. Although it is considered fundamental for healthy social interactions, the mechanism behind it is unclear. One prevalent explanation suggests that perceiving emotional expressions induces emotions in the observer and that it is these emotions that elicit the facial reactions. This study directly tested this hypothesis, investigating whether emotion elicitation is what drives the effect. Two experiments used a facial stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) paradigm-a widely used measure of the tendency to facially match emotional expressions-in which the irrelevant stimuli were happy and angry body postures. Reaction times were measured using facial electromyography. Experiment 1 replicated the known SRC effect to body postures using a simpler task with only one, prespecified, response. This established a novel variant of the paradigm in which the facial effects cannot be attributed to motor matching or response selection and which focuses specifically on the automatic components of the effect. Experiment 2 then added to this paradigm a habituation protocol and self-report ratings of affective valence. Results indicated that emotional body postures elicited limited emotional reactions, which were further habituated following repeated presentations. However, the facial SRC effect did not undergo such habituation, suggesting that reducing emotional reaction to observed expressions does not reduce the tendency to match those expressions. Our findings do not support the emotion elicitation hypothesis and suggest that automatic facial reactions to emotional body postures are not driven by emotional reactions to the stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
... The spotlighted research article laid out a new coherent foundation for how social supervisory operations can be implicated in emotional imitation and by extension, emotional convergence, although the outcomes noted in the recipient's affective displays (facial expression) and sentiments (self-reported affect) need not consistently mimic each other (McIntosh, 2006). Such disparate samples of findings may be clarified by the contextual model of emotional mimicry (Fischer & Hess, 2017) which states that emotional mimicry is not always triggered by the discerned display of emotion itself but by a thorough, general decoding of the same in a particular social setting which indicates the presence of controlled top-down processes and not just automatic bottom-up mechanisms. ...
The idea of this book series is for the scientists, scholars, engineers and students from the Universities all around the world and the industry to present ongoing research activities, and hence to foster research relations between the Universities and the industry. The purpose of this book is to provide a focal forum to share the latest research findings, knowledge, opinions, suggestions, and vision, while also providing a variety of interactive platforms in the field of Social Science.
... Supporting our ndings, previous research indicate that emotional contagion is modulated by the relationship between the observer and the sender (Dezecache, Eskenazi, et al., 2015; Hess & Bourgeois, 2010). It is more likely for individuals to mimic the emotional expressions of those they perceive as similar or socially close (de Waal, 2008), those they like or love (Lakin et al., 2003;McIntosh, 2006), and in-group members or those they expect to cooperate with (Hess & Bourgeois, 2010). ...
Emotional contagion refers to the tendency for individuals to replicate the emotional states of others primarily within the context of social interactions. Prior research has focused on real-time emotional contagion during interpersonal communication. However, this study proposed that social interaction experiences might also play a role in promoting emotional contagion. To investigate this issue, the present study divided participants into the interactive group and the control group and conducted EEG-based hyperscanning to investigate the impact of interpersonal interaction experience on emotional contagion. Behavioral results indicated that individuals reported a greater psychological closeness to their partners after experiencing interaction. Additionally, the interactive group showed stronger emotional congruence between observers and senders. EEG results further demonstrated that inter-brain synchrony in the emotional contagion phase among the observer and sender of the interactive group was significantly higher than that of the control group, particularly in the negative emotions. This research suggests that social interaction experience may affect emotional contagion by altering the interpersonal states. It also adds to our understanding of how social interactions can shape our emotional experiences and emphasizes that interpersonal experiences might be a key factor in promoting emotional contagion.
... Automatic mimicry is an unconscious, automatic process which is innate and hard-wired rather than acquired or learnt [5,9,23,30] and thought to be controlled by motor muscles or the autonomic nervous system [36]. 'The matched motor hypothesis' of automatic mimicry assumes that merely perceiving a non-verbal display automatically induces the same expression in the perceiver [17] and hence insensitive to the social context [19,35]. ...
The development of automated, unobtrusive measurement of pro-social indicators such as trust, empathy, liking and altruistic tendency in daily interactions is an unsolved problem in designing intelligent agents that socially interact with people. This work puts forward and tests a model for using emotional mimicry (matching of emotional displays/expressions) as a potential proxy measurement for the pro-social indicators above. For this purpose, a human-agent interaction experiment was conducted in a social context where the interacting agent belonged to a competitive in-group/out-group with the interacting person. Computer vision and Cross Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQA) were used to measure people's mimicry of facial expressions in response to agent emotional stimuli. We found that the emotional mimicry of sadness was positively correlated with the empathy that people felt towards the agent. We could not find sufficient support for the relationship of sadness mimicry with the other pro-social indicators, or happiness mimicry with any pro-social indicators; the reasons for this are investigated. The results suggest that with the accurate measurement of one's emotions, it could be possible to measure emotional contagion/spread in context and, subsequently, one's pro-social attitudes. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Systems and tools for interaction design; Collaborative and social computing systems and tools; Empirical studies in interaction design; HCI design and evaluation methods; Empirical studies in HCI; Interactive systems and tools; • Applied computing → Psychology.
... While partner liking is often used as an outcome variable, CAT predicts that the liking would also be a prerequisite for convergence. McIntosh (2006) found that liking was associated with mimicry. Muir et al. (2016) showed that convergence in online conversations was correlated with liking and Adams et al. (2018) showed that partner liking was associated with the use of textisms in text message conversations. ...
... However, relationship closeness does not uniformly correlate with increased emotion contagion across studies and methods of emotion contagion measurement. Some studies have found that emotion contagion is not related to interpersonal closeness (McIntosh, 2006;van der Schalk et al., 2011) or marital satisfaction (Sels et al., 2020). ...
People often match the emotion states of interaction partners, a process known as emotion contagion. Emotion contagion is considered both a by-product of shared goals and a tool for strengthening social bonds. Although cross-sectional evidence suggests emotion contagion is positively related to bond strength, few studies have investigated this relationship over the course of friendship formation. Perhaps emotion contagion increases as people become closer (a within-dyad effect), reflecting relationship closeness. Or perhaps some dyads have a stable mutual liking and a tendency towards emotion contagion that does not change over time (a between-dyad effect). Our study disentangled these two accounts. Pairs of unacquainted participants had conversations weekly for six weeks. Participants reported pre- and post-conversation emotion states, and closeness to their partner after each conversation. Emotion contagion, measured in three different ways, declined over time as dyads became interpersonally close (evidence for a within-dyad effect). This decline may indicate increased comfort with emotional divergence. Notably, dyads that reported greater average interpersonal closeness exhibited larger changes in emotion states during their conversations, aligning with previous between-dyad findings. Thus, the association between emotion contagion and friendship status depends on whether we consider change within a dyad or compare between dyads.
... Individuals also align their speech patterns at the level of pronunciation (phonetic convergence; Pardo, 2006), word choice (lexical alignment; Branigan et al. 2011), grammatical structure (syntactic alignment; Branigan et al., 2007), and speaking rate (Manson et al. 2013), as well as coordinate the position of their gaze (Richardson & Dale, 2005). Furthermore, human individuals may imitate each other's facial expressions (McIntosh, 2006), postures, gestures, etc. (Chartrand & Van Baaren, 2009). In some cases, patterns of synchrony emerge in groups even when individuals are not directly interacting. ...
Collective intelligence, broadly conceived, refers to the adaptive behavior achieved by groups through the interactions of their members, often involving phenomena such as consensus building, cooperation, and competition. The standard view of collective intelligence is that it is a distinct phenomenon from supposed individual intelligence. In this position piece, we argue that a more parsimonious stance is to consider all intelligent adaptive behavior as being driven by similar abstract principles of collective dynamics. To illustrate this point, we highlight how similar principles are at work in the intelligent behavior of groups of non-human animals, multicellular organisms, brains, small groups of humans, cultures, and even evolution itself. If intelligent behavior in all of these systems is best understood as the emergent result of collective interactions, we ask what is left to be called "individual intelligence"? We believe that viewing all intelligence as collective intelligence offers greater explanatory power and generality, and may promote fruitful cross-disciplinary exchange in the study of intelligent adaptive behavior.
... Another evolutionary mechanism that plays a role in forming and maintaining social bonds at a distance is mimicry (Chartrand & Lakin, 2013). People mimic individuals who are close to them, such as kin and friends, more than they do acquaintances and strangers (Bourgeois & Hess, 2008;Likowski et al., 2008;McIntosh, 2006;Palagi et al., 2020;Tickle-Degnen, 2006;Yabar et al., 2006). Facial expressions, gestures, postures, and vocal accents can evoke a mimicry response in others (Chartrand & Lakin, 2013;Genschow et al., 2017;Giles et al., 1991;Herrmann et al., 2011;Hess & Fischer, 2013La France, 1982;Palagi et al., 2020;Tiedens & Fragale, 2003). ...
Humans are social animals that rely on different ways to interact with each other. The COVID-19 pandemic strongly changed our communication strategies. Because of the importance of direct contact for our species, we predict that immediately after the forced social isolation, people were more prone to engage in direct rather than in virtual interactions, thus showing a lower mimicry response in the use of smartphones. In a non-longitudinal study, we collected behavioral data under naturalistic contexts and directly compared the data of the mimicry response gathered immediately following the Italian lockdown (May–September 2020) with those gathered one year later (May–October 2021). Contrary to our expectations, the mimicry response in the use of smartphones was higher immediately after the lockdown than a year later. Probably the large use of these devices during the lockdown translated into a greater sensitivity to be affected by others’ smartphone manipulation. Indeed, social isolation modified, at least in the short term, the ways we interact with others by making us more prone to engage in “virtual” social interactions. The bright side of the coin unveiled by our findings is that the effect seems to diminish over time. The large behavioral dataset analyzed here (1,608 events; 248 people) also revealed that the mimicry response in the use of smartphones was higher between familiar subjects than between strangers. In this view, mimicry in manipulating smartphones can be considered an example of joint action that fosters behavioral synchrony between individuals that, in the long-term, can translate into the formation of social bonding.
... Affiliative goals, and thereby, emotional mimicry are also affected by attitudes and liking towards the target ( [7],study 1), even when it is newly formed or based on narratives given during the experiment [29]. Pre-existing rapport is also a facilitator or emotional mimicry, where friends and family members are generally mimicked more than acquaintances [15,24,33,51]. Mimicry occurs particularly when there is a pre-existing positive or at least a neutral relationship [21] such as with strangers. ...
... Individuals also align their speech patterns at the level of pronunciation (phonetic convergence; Pardo, 2006), word choice (lexical alignment; Branigan et al. 2011), grammatical structure (syntactic alignment; Branigan et al., 2007), and speaking rate (Manson et al. 2013), as well as coordinate the position of their gaze (Richardson & Dale, 2005). Furthermore, human individuals may imitate each other's facial expressions (McIntosh, 2006), postures, gestures, etc. (Chartrand & Van Baaren, 2009). In some cases, patterns of synchrony emerge in groups even when individuals are not directly interacting. ...
Collective intelligence, broadly conceived, refers to the adaptive behavior achieved by groups through the interactions of their members, often involving phenomena such as consensus building, cooperation, and competition. The standard view of collective intelligence is that it is a distinct phenomenon from supposed individual intelligence. In this position piece, we argue that a more parsimonious stance is to consider all intelligent adaptive behavior as being driven by similar abstract principles of collective dynamics. To illustrate this point, we highlight how similar principles are at work in the intelligent behavior of groups of non-human animals, multicellular organisms, brains, small groups of humans, cultures, and even evolution itself. If intelligent behavior in all of these systems is best understood as the emergent result of collective interactions, we ask what is left to be called “individual intelligence”? We believe that viewing all intelligence as collective intelligence offers greater explanatory power and generality, and may promote fruitful cross-disciplinary exchange in the study of intelligent adaptive behavior.
... It has also been observed in linguistic features within both semantic (e.g., Brennan and Clark, 1996;Suffill et al., 2021) and syntactical domains (e.g., Branigan et al., 2000;Ivanova et al., 2020). Further, entrainment extends to nonverbal aspects of communication such as facial expressions (e.g., Drimalla et al., 2019;McIntosh, 2006), gestures (e.g., Holler & Wilkin, 2011;Louwerse et al., 2012) and body position and posture (e.g., Paxton & Dale, 2017;Shockley et al., 2003). ...
Conversational entrainment, also known as alignment, accommodation, convergence, and coordination, is broadly defined as similarity of communicative behavior between interlocutors. Within current literature, specific terminology, definitions, and measurement approaches are wide-ranging and highly variable. As new ways of measuring and quantifying entrainment are developed and research in this area continues to expand, consistent terminology and a means of organizing entrainment research is critical, affording cohesion and assimilation of knowledge. While systems for categorizing entrainment do exist, these efforts are not entirely comprehensive in that specific measurement approaches often used within entrainment literature cannot be categorized under existing frameworks. The purpose of this review article is twofold: First, we propose an expanded version of an earlier framework which allows for the categorization of all measures of entrainment of speech behaviors and includes refinements, additions, and explanations aimed at improving its clarity and accessibility. Second, we present an extensive literature review, demonstrating how current literature fits into the given framework. We conclude with a discussion of how the proposed entrainment framework presented herein can be used to unify efforts in entrainment research.
... Finally, given the promising findings of Study 2, it is important to test whether these effects were due to priming or to informing participants about a collaborative task with an outgroup member. Given that people tend to mimic likeable others to a greater extent (e.g., Likowski et al., 2008;McIntosh, 2006), it is also possible that introducing cooperative goals in Study 2 increased participants' facial mimicry, which should be measured in future research. Such future studies should also include measures of participants' motivation to understand ingroup and outgroup facial expressions (Murata et al., 2016). ...
Prior research suggests that group membership impacts behavioral and self-reported responses to others’ facial expressions of emotion. In this paper, we examine how the mere labelling of a face as an ingroup or outgroup member affects facial mimicry (Study 1) and judgments of genuineness (Study 2). In addition, we test whether the effects of group membership on facial mimicry and perceived genuineness are moderated by the presence of tears (Study 1) and the motivation to cooperate (Study 2). Results from both studies revealed group-specific biases in facial mimicry and judgments of genuineness. However, introducing cooperative goals abolished differences in judgments of genuineness of facial expressions displayed by ingroup and outgroup members. Together, the findings provide insights into how intergroup biases in emotion perception operate and how they can be reduced by introducing cooperative goals.
... In line, many studies have shown that mimicry increases liking . Conversely, several factors appeared to enhance mimicry, such as, pre-existing liking, perceived similarity (McIntosh, 2006;van der Schalk et al., 2011;van Swol & Drury-Grogan, 2017), social bonds, and goals for affiliation (Chartrand & Lakin, 2013). Furthermore, it has been shown that we more often mimic emotions that promote affiliation (e.g., happiness or sadness) than the antagonizing ones (e.g., anger, disgust) (Bourgeois & Hess, 2008;Fischer, Becker, & Veenstra, 2012;Hinsz & Tomhave, 1991;Olszanowski, Wróbel, & Hess, 2020). ...
The present study investigated facial responses to emotional sounds that represent social (e.g., laughter, screams) and non-social domains (e.g., instrumental music). Such cross-channel responses allow for examination of mechanisms involved in spontaneous mimicry. In order to address the role of visual experience in facial response to sounds, we compared sighted and blind individuals. To measure spontaneous responding, participants freely listened to the sounds. We used facial electromyography to record the activity of the corrugator supercilii (frowning) and the zygomaticus major (smiling) muscles. Results showed that social, but not equally rated, non-social sounds selectively elicited congruent facial responses. This occurred in both sighted and blind individuals, suggesting that facial response to social emotional sounds might not depend on a previous association with visual input (connecting a happy sound with seeing a happy face). Finally, facial responses to happy vocalizations were especially pronounced. This suggests that spontaneous facial responses to emotional sounds also reflect affiliative social goals. Overall, the pattern of results is consistent with simulationist approaches to emotional mimicry. Additionally, despite no differences between the groups in average facial responses, we observed the difference in the dynamics of the zygomatic response to human affect vocalizations. The altered pattern of facial responses to affect vocalizations may influence social interactions of blind and sighted persons.
... Fundamentally, animals need to synchronize the timing and direction of their movements to keep an aggregation [3]. Furthermore, it has been reported that synchronization can increase efficiency in their vigilance and defensive behaviours (like mobbing) against predators [6], as well as facilitating social interactions and enhancing social bonds [7,8]. Many studies on synchronization were conducted on cohesive, single-layered groups, in either natural or experimental setups [6,[9][10][11]. ...
Behavioural synchrony among individuals is essential for group-living organisms. The functioning of synchronization in a multilevel society, which is a nested assemblage of multiple social levels between many individuals, remains largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to build a model that explained the synchronization of activity in a multilevel society of feral horses. Multi-agent-based models were used based on four hypotheses: A) horses do not synchronize, B) horses synchronize with any individual in any unit, C) horses synchronize only within units, and D) horses synchronize across and within units, but internal synchronization is stronger. The empirical data obtained from drone observations best supported hypothesis D. This result suggests that animals in a multilevel society coordinate with other conspecifics not only within a unit but also at an inter-unit level. In this case, inter-individual distances are much longer than those in most previous models which only considered local interaction within a few body lengths.
... Roles of mimicry in processing perceived facial expression. If facial mimicry is important in constructing embodied simulations for smiles, then mimicry should affect performance on tasks that measure recognition and access to meaning (Adolphs 2002;Heberlein & Atkinson 2009;McIntosh 2006). In their review of facial mimicry, however, Hess and colleagues ) did not find evidence that mimicry was causally related to the simple recognition of emotional facial expressions, either directly or as mediated by changes in self-reported emotional state (e.g., Blairy et al. 1999). ...
Recent application of theories of embodied or grounded cognition to the recognition and interpretation of facial expression of emotion has led to an explosion of research in psychology and the neurosciences. However, despite the accelerating number of reported findings, it remains unclear how the many component processes of emotion and their neural mechanisms actually support embodied simulation. Equally unclear is what triggers the use of embodied simulation versus perceptual or conceptual strategies in determining meaning. The present article integrates behavioral research from social psychology with recent research in neurosciences in order to provide coherence to the extant and future research on this topic. The roles of several of the brain's reward systems, and the amygdala, somatosensory cortices, and motor centers are examined. These are then linked to behavioral and brain research on facial mimicry and eye gaze. Articulation of the mediators and moderators of facial mimicry and gaze are particularly useful in guiding interpretation of relevant findings from neurosciences. Finally, a model of the processing of the smile, the most complex of the facial expressions, is presented as a means to illustrate how to advance the application of theories of embodied cognition in the study of facial expression of emotion.
... Roles of mimicry in processing perceived facial expression. If facial mimicry is important in constructing embodied simulations for smiles, then mimicry should affect performance on tasks that measure recognition and access to meaning (Adolphs 2002;Heberlein & Atkinson 2009;McIntosh 2006). In their review of facial mimicry, however, Hess and colleagues ) did not find evidence that mimicry was causally related to the simple recognition of emotional facial expressions, either directly or as mediated by changes in self-reported emotional state (e.g., Blairy et al. 1999). ...
The set of 30 stimulating commentaries on our target article helps to define the areas of our initial position that should be reiterated or else made clearer and, more importantly, the ways in which moderators of and extensions to the SIMS can be imagined. In our response, we divide the areas of discussion into (1) a clarification of our meaning of “functional,” (2) a consideration of our proposed categories of smiles, (3) a reminder about the role of top-down processes in the interpretation of smile meaning in SIMS, (4) an evaluation of the role of eye contact in the interpretation of facial expression of emotion, and (5) an assessment of the possible moderators of the core SIMS model. We end with an appreciation of the proposed extensions to the model, and note that the future of research on the problem of the smile appears to us to be assured.
... It is known, for instance, that things as trivial as sharing first names [4], or wearing the same scarf or armband [5] can elicit mimicking behaviours. Internal factors such as liking or wanting to affiliate with someone have been shown to increase mimicry as well [6][7][8]. The effects of being mimicked can be summarized as inducing a more positive attitude towards the mimicker [9,10], such as facilitating acceptance [8,11] or creating the feeling that the mimicker is more trustworthy [12]-all of which increase affiliation. ...
Previous research has shown that behavioural mimicry fosters affiliation, and can be used to infer whether people belong to the same social unit. However, we still know very little about the generalizability of these findings and the individual factors involved. The present study intends to disentangle two important variables and assess their importance for affiliation: the matching in time of the behaviours versus their matching in form. In order to address this issue, we presented participants with short videos in which two actors displayed a set of small movements (e.g. crossing their legs, folding their arms, tapping their fingers) arranged to be either contingent in time or in form. A dark filter was used to eliminate ostensive group marks, such us phenotype or clothing. Participants attributed the highest degree of affiliation to the actors when their subsequent movements matched in form, but were delayed by 4–5 seconds, and the lowest degree when the timing of their movements matched, but they differed in form. To assess the generalizability of our findings, we took our study outside the usual Western context and tested a matching sample of participants from a traditional small-scale society in Kenya. In all, our results suggest that movements are used to judge the degree of affiliation between two individuals in both large- and small-scale societies. While moving in different ways at the same time seems to increase the perceived distance between two individuals, movements which match in form seem to invoke closeness.
... In conclusion, empirically observing behavioural or physiological synchronization in animals cannot be taken as definite evidence for emotional contagion. This does not imply that behavioural or physiological observations do not greatly contribute to our understanding of animal emotions (Paul et al. 2005), or that mimicry does not play an important role in emotional contagion (Lakin et al. 2003) or in social relations (McIntosh 2006), but rather that interpretations of emotional contagion should not depend on observing synchrony alone, and that additional objective indicators are needed. ...
Emotional contagion is suggested to facilitate group life by enhancing synchronized responses to the environment. Cooperative breeders are an example of a social system that requires such intricate coordination between individuals. Therefore, we studied emotional contagion in common marmosets by means of a judgement bias test. Demonstrators were exposed to an emotion manipulation (i.e., positive, negative, control), and observers perceived only the demonstrator’s behaviour. We predicted that the positive or negative states of the demonstrator would induce matching states in the observer, indicating emotional contagion. All subjects’ emotional states were assessed through behaviour and cognition, the latter by means of a judgement bias test. Behavioural results showed a successful emotion manipulation of demonstrators, with manipulation-congruent expressions (i.e., positive calls in the positive condition, and negative calls and pilo-erect tail in the negative condition). Observers showed no manipulation-congruent expressions, but showed more scratching and arousal after the positive manipulation. Concerning the judgement bias test, we predicted that subjects in a positive state should increase their response to ambiguous cues (i.e., optimism bias), and subjects in a negative state should decrease their response (i.e., pessimism bias). This prediction was not supported as neither demonstrators nor observers showed such bias in either manipulation. Yet, demonstrators showed an increased response to the near-positive cue, and additional analyses showed unexpected responses to the reference cues, as well as a researcher identity effect. We discuss all results combined, including recently raised validation concerns of the judgement bias test, and inherent challenges to empirically studying emotional contagion.
... Not only does it signal higher rapport when the relation between mimicker and expresser is already established [18], but it is also used to pursue affiliation between new acquaintances [6]. Indeed, the literature highlights that initial liking increases facial mimicry in first encounters [27] and the mere goal to affiliate intensifies people's mimicking response [25]. ...
Facial mimicry is crucial in social interactions as it communicates the intent to bond with another person. While human-human mimicry has been extensively studied, human-agent and human-robot mimicry have been addressed only recently, and the individual characteristics that affect them are still unknown. This paper explores whether the humanlikeness and embodiment of an agent affect human facial mimicry and which personality and empathy traits are related to facial mimicry of human and artificial agents. We exposed 46 participants to the six basic emotions displayed by a video-recorded human and three artificial agents (a physical robot, a video-recorded robot, and a virtual agent) differing in humanlikeness (humanlike, characterlike, and a morph between the two). We asked participants to recognize the facial expressions performed by each agent and measured their facial mimicry using automatic detection of facial action unit activation. Results showed that mimicry was affected by the agents’ embodiment, but not by their humanlikeness, and that it correlated both with individual traits denoting sociability and sympathy and with traits advantageous for emotion recognition.
... It is a powerful agent in shaping the moods of the people in various situations which involves both conscious and unconscious mechanisms (Bispo & Paiva, 2009). Number of studies has indicated that the people are imitating others facial expressions (McIntosh, 2006). Thus, the emotional contagion has been identified as a basis of imitation and innovation (Gaba & Meyer 2008;Lieberman & Asaba 2006, as cited in Im, Park, & Storey, 2013. ...
... Not only does it signal higher rapport when the relation between mimicker and expresser is already established [18], but it is also used to pursue affiliation between new acquaintances [6]. Indeed, the literature highlights that initial liking increases facial mimicry in first encounters [27] and the mere goal to affiliate intensifies people's mimicking response [25]. ...
Facial mimicry is crucial in social interactions as it communicates the intent to bond with another person. While human-human mimicry has been extensively studied, human-agent and human-robot mimicry have been addressed only recently, and the individual characteristics that affect them are still unknown. This paper explores whether the humanlikeness and embodiment of an agent affect human facial mimicry and which personality and empathy traits are related to facial mimicry of human and artificial agents. We exposed 46 participants to the six basic emotions displayed by a video-recorded human and three artificial agents (a physical robot, a video-recorded robot, and a virtual agent) differing in humanlikeness (humanlike, characterlike, and a morph between the two). We asked participants to recognize the facial expressions performed by each agent and measured their facial mimicry using automatic detection of facial action unit activation. Results showed that mimicry was affected by the agents' embodiment, but not by their humanlikeness, and that it correlated both with individual traits denoting sociability and sympathy and with traits advantageous for emotion recognition.
... From facial expressions we communicate and infer emotions and intentions; they serve as a visual guide on how to act during social interactions and encounters with others [24]. Previous research on facial mimicry considers it a "basic facet of social interaction, theorized to influence emotional contagion, rapport, and perception and interpretation of others' emotional facial expressions" [25]. ...
Collaboration and creativity are consistently among the top-ranked values across societies, industries, and educational organizations. What makes collaboration possible is social norms. Group-based norms have played a key role in the evolution and maintenance of human ability to work and create together. We are not born collaborative-beings; it is the ability for social cognition and normativity that allows us to collaborate with others. Despite social norms ubiquity and pervasiveness—and being one of the most invoked concepts in social science—it remains unclear what are the underlying mechanisms to the extent to be one of the big unsolved problems in the field. To contribute to close this gap, the authors take an enactive-ecological approach, in which social norms are dynamic and context-dependent socio-material affordances for collaborative activity. Social norms offer the agent possibilities for collaborative action with others in the form of pragmatic social cues. The novelty of this research is the application of quantitative methods using computational models and computer vision to collect and analyze data on the pragmatic social cues of social norms in creative collaboration. Researchers will benefit from those methods by having fast and reliable data collection and analysis at a high level of granularity. In the present study, we analyzed the interpersonal synchrony of physiological signals and facial expressions between participants, together with the participant’s perceived team cohesion. Despite the small size of the experiment, we could find correlations between signals and patterns that provide confidence in the feasibility of the methods employed. We conclude that the methods employed can be a powerful tool to collect and analyze data from larger groups and, therefore, shed some light on the—still not fully understood—underlying mechanisms of social normativity. The findings from the preliminary study are by no means conclusive, but serve as a proof of concept of the applicability of body signals and facial expressions to study social norms.
... The assessment of behavioural mimicry has also been used to capture empathy as it occurs [26][27] [28][29] [30]. Mimicry is associated with many positive interpersonal outcomes, such as increased rapport and liking [31], for example. ...
The phenomenon of empathy is often examined in contexts where people demonstrate compassion towards others. However, less is known about the way in which we empathise with others in everyday conversations which are less emotionally-charged. This study sought to explore whether there is a relationship between people's expression levels and the degree to which they are perceived to be empathising. 408 participants were shown thin-slice clips of pairs of people demonstrating varying degrees of empathy towards each other, as rated by groups of naive online observers. The participants then rated the degree to which each interlocutor was behaving in an expressive way. Linear mixed effects modelling was used to test whether there was a significant relationship between the interlocutors' expressivity levels and perceptions of how empathically they were behaving. The results indicated the existence of such a relationship-with an increase of 0.14 units in empathic behaviour intensity ratings observed for every increase of 1 unit in expressivity level. A second model explored whether this effect was influenced by the gender dynamic of the interaction. The results revealed that expressivity conveyed empathic understanding and responsivity in female-female and mixed-sex dyads but did not appear to do so for male-male dyads. The findings offer support to the notion that behaving in a highly expressive way can be a way of conveying empathy in everyday conversations, but this effect may be dependent on an empathiser's gender in relation to their target. Further studies with more examples of naturalistic empathising behaviour will help to establish the generalisability of this finding.
... Of note, this research was part of a larger program of research investigating the effects of stress on various aspects of social cognition. During the first visit ('Day-1'), participants completed self-report questionnaires, and an empathic accuracy task [26,27; reported on elsewhere] , and then a task using facial electromyography (fEMG) to assess spontaneous facial mimicry [24,28] . During the second visit ('Day-2'), we first induced acute psychosocial stress with the Trier Social Stress Test [TSST; 29; see below] , after which participants performed the same empathic accuracy and mimicry tasks they performed at baseline. ...
Mimicry, and especially spontaneous facial mimicry, is a rudimentary element of social–emotional experience that is well-conserved across numerous species. Although such mimicry is thought to be a relatively automatic process, research indicates that contextual factors can influence mimicry, especially in humans. Here, we extend this work by investigating the effect of acute psychosocial stress on spontaneous facial mimicry. Participants performed a spontaneous facial mimicry task with facial electromyography (fEMG) at baseline and approximately one month later, following an acute psychosocial stressor (Trier Social Stress Test). Results show that the magnitude of the endocrine stress response reduced zygomaticus major reactivity, and specifically spontaneous facial mimicry for positive social stimuli (i.e. smiles). Individuals with higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol showed a more blunted fEMG response to smiles, but not to frowns. Conversely, stress had no effect on corrugator supercilii activation (i.e. frowning to frowns). These findings highlight the importance of the biological stress response system in this basic element of social–emotional experience.
... Accordingly, people who mimic others are rated as more likeable than people who do not (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). One study into the mimicry of facial expressions further showed that the relationship is bi-directional: Liking also increases mimicry (McIntosh, 2006). Thus far, only two studies investigated if behavioral mimicry is related to social anxiety (Abbott & Kocovski, 2018;Vrijsen, Lange, Becker, & Rinck, 2010). ...
Background and objectives
This study aimed to unravel the relationship between socially anxious individuals’ expectation of being (dis)liked and actual likeability by looking at the mediation role of both strategic and automatic social behavior: Self-disclosure as well as mimicry were examined.
Method
Female participants (N = 91) with various levels of social anxiety participated in a social task with a confederate. Before the task, participants indicated their expectation of being liked by the confederate. Afterwards, objective video-observers rated the likeability of the participants before and after the social task as well as their level of self-disclosure and mimicry.
Results
Social anxiety correlated negatively with the expectation to be liked but was not related to observer ratings of likeability, self-disclosure or mimicry. However, degree of social anxiety moderated the relation between expectations and self-disclosure. As expected, participants with low levels of social anxiety disclosed more if they expected to be liked. A reversed pattern was found for the high socially anxious participants: Here, higher expectations of being liked were related to less self-disclosure.
Limitations
The study used an analogue female sample. Our social interaction task was highly structured and does not reflect informal day-to-day conversations.
Conclusion
Socially anxious individuals function rather well in highly structured social tasks. No support was found for declined likeability or disrupted mimicry. Nevertheless, high socially anxious individuals did have a cognitive bias and show a self-protective strategy: when expecting a neutral judgment they reduce their level of self-disclosure. This pattern probably adds to their feelings of social disconnectedness.
... We also expand on previous research by examining the influence of familiarity among conversation partners on interactional synchrony. Previous studies with neurotypical individuals suggest that synchrony is higher among familiar dyads or those with pre-existing rapport, compared to unfamiliar dyads (Latif et al. 2014;McIntosh 2006). In contrast, in ASD, Feldstein et al. (1982) found that youth with ASD failed to achieve synchrony in the timing of their speech cues with both their parents and unfamiliar adults. ...
Social partners tend to coordinate their behaviors in time. This “interactional synchrony” is associated with a host of positive social outcomes, making it ripe for study in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty children with ASD and 17 typically developing (TD) children participated in conversations with familiar and unfamiliar adults. Conversations were rated for movement synchrony and verbal synchrony, and mothers completed measures regarding children’s everyday social and communication skills. Children with ASD exhibited less interactional synchrony, with familiar and unfamiliar partners, than TD peers. Beyond group-level differences, interactional synchrony negatively correlated with autism symptom severity, and predicted dimensional scores on established social and communication measures. Results suggest that disrupted interactional synchrony may be associated with impaired social functioning in ASD.
Socially situated thought and behaviour are pervasive and vitally important in human society. The social brain has become a focus of study for researchers in the neurosciences, psychology, biology and other areas of behavioural science, and it is becoming increasingly clear that social behaviour is heavily dependent on shared representations. Any social activity, from a simple conversation to a well-drilled military exercise to an exquisitely perfected dance routine, involves information sharing between the brains of those involved. This volume comprises a collection of cutting-edge essays centred on the idea of shared representations, broadly defined. Featuring contributions from established world leaders in their fields and written in a simultaneously accessible and detailed style, this is an invaluable resource for established researchers and those who are new to the field.
In this article, we review the conceptions of Collective Effervescence (CE) –a state of intense shared emotional activation and sense of unison that emerges during instances of collective behavior, like demonstrations, rituals, ceremonies, celebrations, and others– and empirical approaches oriented at measuring it. The first section starts examining Émile Durkheim's classical conception on CE, and then, the integrative one proposed by the sociologist Randall Collins, leading to a multi-faceted experience of synchronization (e.g., Páez and colleagues, 2015). Then, we analyze the construct as a process emerging in collective encounters when individuals contact with social ideal and values, referring to the classical work of Serge Moscovici as well as those more recent empirical approaches (e.g., Shira Grabriel and colleagues, 2017). Third, we consider CE as a set of intense positive emotions linked to processes of group identification, as proposed by authors of the Social Identity Theory tradition (e.g., Nick Hopkins and colleagues, 2016). Finally, we describe CE from the perspective of self-transcendence (e.g., emotions, experiences; Scott Draper, 2014), and propose a unified description of this construct. The second section shows the results of a meta-analytical integration (k = 50, N = 182738) aimed at analyzing CE’s proximal effects or construct validity (i.e.,Individual Emotions and Communal Sharing) as well as its association with more distal variables, such as Collective Emotions, Social Integration, Social Values and Beliefs and Empowerment. Results indicate that CE strongly associates with Individual Emotions –in particular, Self- Transcendent Emotions– and Communal Sharing constructs (e.g., Group Identity, Fusion of Identity), providing construct validity. Among the distal effects of CE, it is associated with Collective Positive Emotions, long-term Social Integration (e.g., Ingroup Commitment), Social Values and Beliefs and Empowerment-related variables (e.g., Well-Being, Collective Efficacy, Collective Self-Esteem). Among the moderation analyses carried out (e.g., study design, CE scale, type of collective gathering), the effects of CE in demonstrations are noticeable, where this variable is a factor that favors other variables that make collective action possible, such as Group Identity (rpooled = .52), Collective Efficacy (rpooled = .37), Negative and Self-Transcendent Emotions (rpooled = .14 and .58), and Morality-related beliefs (rpooled = .43).
Alignment in nonverbal behavior can be understood through reference to behavior matching, which is the tendency to adopt the behaviors, postures, or mannerisms of a conversational partner. Although behavior matching is believed to occur unintentionally and unconsciously, its occurrence is associated with how interlocutors perceive each other. Drawing on corpus data of conversations between English second language (L2) speakers, this study examines the relationship between behavior matching and interlocutor perceptions, which were measured through post-task ratings of partner collaboration and motivation. Conversations (N = 51) between 102 English L2 university students were coded for nonverbal behaviors in five categories (face, head, hand, posture, self-adaption), and each behavior was coded as being matched or not matched by the interlocutor. The proportion of matched behaviors per dyad in each category were correlated with the mean motivation and collaboration partner ratings, and a linear regression model identified hand behavior matching as a significant predictor of partner motivation. Potential implications and avenues for future research about nonverbal alignment are discussed.
Facial expressions are indispensable in daily human communication. Previous neuroimaging studies investigating facial expression processing have presented pre-recorded stimuli and lacked live face-to-face interaction. Our paradigm alternated between presentations of real-time model performance and pre-recorded videos of dynamic facial expressions to participants. Simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and facial electromyography activity recordings, as well as post-scan valence and arousal ratings were acquired from 44 female participants. Live facial expressions enhanced the subjective valence and arousal ratings as well as facial muscular responses. Live performances showed greater engagement of the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), right amygdala and right fusiform gyrus, and modulated the effective connectivity within the right mirror neuron system (IFG, pSTS, and right inferior parietal lobule). A support vector machine algorithm could classify multivoxel activation patterns in brain regions involved in dynamic facial expression processing in the mentalizing networks (anterior and posterior cingulate cortex). These results indicate that live social interaction modulates the activity and connectivity of the right mirror neuron system and enhances spontaneous mimicry, further facilitating emotional contagion.
Highlights
We alternately presented real-time and pre-recorded dynamic facial expressions.
Live facial expressions enhanced emotion contagion and spontaneous facial mimicry.
Live conditions modulated mirror neuron system activity and effective connectivity.
The mentalizing network showed distinctive multivoxel patterns in live conditions.
The results support the validity of second-person design in social neuroscience.
Mimicking another individual functions as a social glue: it smoothens the interaction and fosters affiliation. Here, we investigated whether the intrinsic motivation to affiliate with others, stemming from attachment relationships, modulates individuals’ engagement in facial mimicry (FM). Participants (N = 100; MAge = 24.54 years, SDAge = 3.90 years) observed faces with happy, sad, and neutral expressions, while their facial muscle activity was recorded with electromyography. Attachment was measured with the Attachment Styles Questionnaire, which provides a multidimensional profile for preoccupied and dismissing styles. It was proposed that the preoccupied and dismissing styles are characterized by high and low intrinsic affiliation motivation, respectively, and these were hypothesized to manifest in enhanced and diminished FM. Participants showed happy and sad FM, yet attachment styles did not significantly predict FM. Bayes Factor analyses lend evidence favoring the null hypothesis, suggesting that adult attachment do not contribute to FM.
: Burnout has been a prominent topic in the management research for over thirty years. Yet few studies have explored the conditions that foster burnout from managers to employees (indirect crossover). Based on the principle of behavioral plasticity, we propose that self-efficacy is an adaptive resource that enables employees to counter the potentially crossover effects of burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion and cynicism). This proposal is partially supported by the results of a longitudinal analysis of educators (principals and teachers): A moderating effect of employee self-efficacy was found, but only for emotional exhaustion, which is considered the basic individual stress dimension of burnout. More specifically, managerial emotional exhaustion was associated with lower emotional exhaustion over time in employees who reported higher self-efficacy, with the inverse association for employees with lower self-efficacy. This suggests that managers' emotional exhaustion can indirectly affect the experience of a congruent emotional state in their subordinates. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
In social interactions, own actions often trigger a particular response from another person. The sociomotor framework proposes that this consistent behavior of others can become incorporated into own action control. In line with this idea, recent studies have shown that own motor actions are facilitated if they are predictably being imitated rather than counterimitated by a social interaction partner. In the present study, we investigated whether this finding is influenced by the relationship between the interacting persons. To that end, we manipulated whether a participant was being imitated and counterimitated by an ingroup or by an outgroup member. In two experiments, we found a beneficial influence of being imitated irrespective of group membership. The results suggest that, while people incorporated their partner's behavior into own action control, this was not further qualified by group membership as a higher-order social variable. This finding points to a universal account of action control for actions with social action effects and actions with inanimate action effects alike.
The “chameleon effect” refers to the tendency to adopt the postures, gestures, and mannerisms of interaction partners (Chartrand & Bargh, 1999). This type of mimicry occurs outside of conscious awareness, and without any intent to mimic or imitate. Empirical evidence suggests a bi-directional relationship between nonconscious mimicry on the one hand, and liking, rapport, and affiliation on the other. That is, nonconscious mimicry creates affiliation, and affiliation can be expressed through nonconscious mimicry. We argue that mimicry played an important role in human evolution. Initially, mimicry may have had survival value by helping humans communicate. We propose that the purpose of mimicry has now evolved to serve a social function. Nonconscious behavioral mimicry increases affiliation, which serves to foster relationships with others. We review current research in light of this proposed framework and suggest future areas of research.
The facial expression responses of adults to the display of facial expressions were examined in a variety of public settings to test predictions from a contagion hypothesis, that the display of smiles and frowns results in smiles and frowns, and folk wisdom that the display of a smile will result in a smile but that a frown will not lead to a frown in response. It was also predicted that female subjects would smile more frequently than male subjects and that people would smile at females more than at males. The results supported the folk adage rather than the contagion hypothesis: Over half the subjects responded to a smile with a smile, whereas few subjects responded to a frown with a frown. The predicted effects of subjects' and displayers' gender were also observed. The results were interpreted in the context of internalized norms of reciprocity for brief encounters. The potential for enhanced affect as a result of the contagion of smiles is discussed.
Explored the facial muscle responses to exposure to stimuli of facial expressions (FEs) that correspond to specific emotional experiences; and whether FEs are contagious. 56 Ss (mean age 26.4 yrs) were exposed individually to slides of males and females from P. Ekman and W. V. Friesen's set (1976) displaying sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness and neutral FEs. Bipolar EMG recordings were made on the left side of Ss' faces, with Beckman miniature surface electrodes. Results indicate that different stimuli of FEs of emotion spontaneously elicited different facial EMG reactions. Sad faces evoked significantly larger reactions from the M. corrugator supercili muscle region. Faces expressing surprise evoked significantly larger reactions from frontal M. lateralis region. Angry faces evoked an increased experience of fear and disgust. Ss both mimicked and experienced the same emotion expressed by the stimuli persons.
Participants in manipulated emotional states played computerised movies in which facial expressions of emotion changed into categorically different expressions. The participants' task was to detect the offset of the initial expression. An effect of emotional state was observed such that individuals in happy states saw the offset of happiness (changing into sadness) at an earlier point in the movies than did those in sad states. Similarly, sad condition participants detected the offset of a sad expression changing into a happy expression earlier than did happy condition participants. This result is consistent with a proposed role of facial mimicry in the perception of change in emotional expression. The results of a second experiment provide additional evidence for the mimicry account. The Discussion focuses on the relationship between motor behaviour and perception.
Elementary motor mimicry (e.g., wincing when another is injured) has been previously considered in social psychology as the overt manifestation of some intrapersonal process such as vicarious emotion. A 2-part experiment with 50 university students tested the hypothesis that motor mimicry is instead an interpersonal event, a nonverbal communication intended to be seen by the other. Part 1 examined the effect of a receiver on the observer's motor mimicry. The victim of an apparently painful injury was either increasingly or decreasingly available for eye contact with the observer. Microanalysis showed that the pattern and timing of the observer's motor mimicry were significantly affected by the visual availability of the victim. In Part 2, naive decoders viewed and rated the reactions of these observers. Their ratings confirmed that motor mimicry was consistently decoded as "knowing" and "caring" and that these interpretations were significantly related to the experimental condition under which the reactions were elicited. Results cannot be explained by any alternative intrapersonal theory, so a parallel process model is proposed in which the eliciting stimulus may set off both internal reactions and communicative responses, and it is the communicative situation that determines the visable behavior. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This review evaluates four facial feedback hypotheses, each proposing a certain relation between the face and emotions. It addresses criticisms of the data, considers implications for emotional and social processes, and advises directions for future research. The current data support the following: Facial actions are sensitive to social context, yet correspond to the affective dimension of emotions; matches with specific emotions are unlikely. They modulate ongoing emotions, and initiate them. These two claims have received substantially improved support, in part due to studies controlling for effects of experimental demand and task difficulty. Facial action may influence the occurrence of specific emotions, not simply their valence and intensity. Facial action is not necessary for emotions. There are multiple and nonmutually exclusive plausible mechanisms for facial effects on emotions. Future work must focus on determining the relative contributions of these mechanisms, and the parameters of their effects on emotions.
The impact of facial control on subjective reactions to dubbed (created with inserts of smiling people) and undubbed comedy routines was examined. The presence of dubs increased EMG activity over thezygomaticus major andorbicularis oculi muscle regions for spontaneous-condition subjects, but not for inhibit-condition subjects. Analyses also showed that spontaneous-condition subjects exhibited increased smiling at dub points, a finding that is consistent with the notion that subjects mimicked the inserted facial displays. Self-report findings revealed that spontaneous-condition subjects reported significantly greater amusement to the dubbed compared with the undubbed routines, whereas inhibit-condition subjects' self-reports of amusement did not differentiate dub conditions. Furthermore, spontaneous-condition subjects reported significantly more amusement to the dubbed routines than did inhibit-condition subjects. Despite strong facial control effects on facial EMG activity, no main effect of facial condition on self-reported amusement was found, and therefore, the data provide no support for a general version of facial feedback theory. The data are consistent with the view that mimetic responses enhanced subjective reactions, and they are compatible with the Leventhal and Tomkins versions of facial feedback theory.
This study investigated whether observers' facial reactions to the emotional facial expressions of others represent an affective or a cognitive response to these emotional expressions. Three hypotheses were contrasted: (1) facial reactions to emotional facial expressions are due to mimicry as part of an affective empathic reaction; (2) facial reactions to emotional facial expressions are a reection of shared affectdue to emotion induction; and (3) facial reactions to emotional facial expressions are determined by cognitive load depending on task dif® culty. Two experiments were conducted varying type of task, presenta- tion of stimuli, and task dif® culty. The results show that depending on the nature of the rating task, facial reactions to facial expressions may be either affective or cognitive. Speci® cally, evidence for facial mimicry was only found when individuals made judgements regarding the valence of an emotional facial expression. Other types of judgements regarding facial expressions did not seem to elicitmimicry but may lead to facial responses related to cognitive load.
The psychophysiological responses of 60 subjects were measured as they observed a performer play a roulette game. Half of the subjects were led to believe that they were similar to the performer in personality and values, and half were led to believe that they were dissimilar. Half of the subjects in each condition believed that the performer won money and experienced pain as he played the game, and half believed that he performed a cognitive and motor skill task. Subjects who observed a performer who ostensibly experienced pleasure and pain exhibited greater psychophysiological reactions than subjects who did not. Subjects who believed they were similar to the performer tended to react more strongly than subjects who believed they were different from him. Similar subjects also reported identifying most with the performer and feeling the worst while he waited to receive shocks. It was concluded that the similar subjects empathized most with the performer who appeared to experience pleasure and pain. When required to make a choice between helping themselves at a cost to the performer or helping the performer at a cost to themselves, the subjects who reacted most empathically behaved most altruistically. The results were interpreted as casting some light on century-old questions about the human capacity for altruism.
Physiological measures have traditionally been viewed in social psychology as useful only in assessing general arousal and therefore as incapable of distinguishing between positive and negative affective states. This view is challenged in the present report. Sixteen subjects in a pilot study were exposed briefly to slides and tones that were mildly to moderately evocative of positive and negative affect. Facial electromyographic (EMG) activity differentiated both the valence and intensity of the affective reaction. Moreover, independent judges were unable to determine from viewing videotapes of the subjects' facial displays whether a positive or negative stimulus had been presented or whether a mildly or moderately intense stimulus had been presented. In the full experiment, 28 subjects briefly viewed slides of scenes that were mildly to moderately evocative of positive and negative affect. Again, EMG activity over the brow (corrugator supercilia), eye (orbicularis oculi), and cheek (zygomatic major) muscle regions differentiated the pleasantness and intensity of individuals' affective reactions to the visual stimuli even though visual inspection of the videotapes again indicated that expressions of emotion were not apparent. These results suggest that gradients of EMG activity over the muscles of facial expression can provide objective and continuous probes of affective processes that are too subtle or fleeting to evoke expressions observable under normal conditions of social interaction.
Reports initial results of an attempt to introduce and validate a social-psychological construct of romantic love. Starting with the assumption that love is an interpersonal attitude, an internally consistent paper-and-pencil love scale was developed. The conception of romantic love included 3 components: affiliative and dependent need, a predisposition to help, and an orientation of exclusiveness and absorption. The 13-item love-scale scores were only moderately correlated with scores on a parallel 13-item scale of "liking," which reflected a more traditional conception of interpersonal attraction. The validity of the love scale was assessed in a questionnaire study with 158 undergraduate dating couples and a laboratory experiment with 79 undergraduate dating couples. On the basis of the emerging conception of love, it was predicted that college dating couples who loved each other a great deal (as categorized by their love-scale scores) would spend more time gazing into one another's eyes than would couples who loved each other to a lesser degree. The prediction was confirmed. (22 ref.)
Findings in the social psychology literatures on attitudes, social perception, and emotion demonstrate that social information processing involves embodiment, where embodiment refers both to actual bodily states and to simulations of experience in the brain's modality-specific systems for perception, action, and introspection. We show that embodiment underlies social information processing when the perceiver interacts with actual social objects (online cognition) and when the perceiver represents social objects in their absence (offline cognition). Although many empirical demonstrations of social embodiment exist, no particularly compelling account of them has been offered. We propose that theories of embodied cognition, such as the Perceptual Symbol Systems (PSS) account (Barsalou, 1999), explain and integrate these findings, and that they also suggest exciting new directions for research. We compare the PSS account to a variety of related proposals and show how it addresses criticisms that have previously posed problems for the general embodiment approach.
The chameleon effect refers to nonconscious mimicry of the postures, mannerisms, facial expressions, and other behaviors of one's interaction partners, such that one's behavior passively rind unintentionally changes to match that of others in one's current social environment. The authors suggest that the mechanism involved is the perception-behavior link, the recently documented finding (e.g., J. A. Bargh, M. Chen, & L. Burrows, 1996) that the mere perception of another' s behavior automatically increases the likelihood of engaging in that behavior oneself Experiment 1 showed that the motor behavior of participants unintentionally matched that of strangers with whom they worked on a task. Experiment 2 had confederates mimic the posture and movements of participants and showed that mimicry facilitates the smoothness of interactions and increases liking between interaction partners. Experiment 3 showed that dispositionally empathic individuals exhibit the chameleon effect to a greater extent than do other people.
Despite the burgeoning literature using facial electromyography (EMG) to study cognitive and emotional processes, the psychometric properties of facial EMG measurement have received little attention. Two experiments were conducted to assess the reliability and validity of facial EMG as a measure of specific facial actions. In Experiment 1, two recording sites in the brow region were compared for their ability to differentiate facial actions hypothesized to be due to the activation of the corrugator supercilii from facial actions presumed to be due to the activation of proximate muscles (e.g. depressor supercilii, procerus, frontalis, levator labii superioris alaeque nasi, orbicularis oculi), and four sites in the infraorbital triangle were compared for their ability to differentiate facial actions hypothesized to be due to the activation of the zygomaticus major from facial actions presumed to be due the activation of proximate muscles (e.g. zygomaticus minor, risorius, buccinator, orbicularis oculi, orbicularis oris). Fifteen subjects were instructed to pose a series of facial actions while EMG activity was sampled simultaneously at all sites. In Experiment 2, 5 subjects returned to the laboratory for a more extensive investigation of surface EMG activity over the zygomaticus major muscle region. The results of this experiment confirmed the findings of Experiment 1. Overall, the results demonstrate that certain recording sites located over specific facial muscle regions are more sensitive and valid indices of particular facial actions than other nearby sites.
In theory and research on human emotional response, the facial feedback hypothesis (FFH) has held a special place because its claims are both counterintuitive and controversial. In this article, evidence for the hypothesis is reviewed in light of certain of the critical assessments of the hypothesis. It is concluded that the empirical evidence and the theoretical speculation are of sufficient strength to warrant confidence in the reliability of the FFH. The FFH is applied to the interpersonal context by noting the evidence for the imitation of facial expressions in both adults and infants. The `interpersonal facial feedback hypothesis' holds that in face-to-face contexts the hedonic tone of facial displays achieved through imitation should influence the underlying affect experienced by the partners. The link between facial imitation and affect can account in part for their attraction to the partner and situation. A reanalysis of previous data provides evidence for the imitation of smiles in conversation among various types of dyads and for an independent effect of a person's own smiles on his or her own attraction to the partner (after the effects of other predictors of attraction have been removed).
Explored whether different facial electro-myographic (EMG) reactions correspond to a change in the subjective experience of specific emotions. 22 college students were exposed to slides of angry and happy facial stimuli in a balanced order while their facial-EMG activity (corrugator and zygomatic muscle regions), autonomic activity (heart rate and skin conductance), and their experience of emotion were measured. Angry stimuli evoked increased corrugator activity, heart rate-deceleration, and reliably more fear as compared with the happy stimuli, whereas happy stimuli elicited increased zygomatic activity and more experience of happiness. Results support the proposition that facial muscles constitute an emotional output system and are intimately related to the experience of emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Several recent experiments have demonstrated that modulation of the facial expressive response is accompanied by changes in autonomic arousal and subjective response to painful stimuli. The present study asked whether facial self-regulation may also bring about changes in covert vicarious emotional experience. Three groups of subjects were exposed to a videotaped model displaying intermittent pain to shock in a differential vicarious autonomic conditioning paradigm. Subjects in the inhibit and amplify groups were asked, respectively, (a) to inhibit their facial muscles or (b) to pose a facial response of pain when the model was shocked. It was predicted that the inhibit group would show less autonomic arousal to the model's expressive display (empathy) and less conditioning (as measured by skin conductance and heart rate change), and the amplify group more empathy and conditioning, than a third group who was given no facial instruction. In fact, the amplify group showed more skin conductance arousal, heart rate acceleration, and activity in response to the model's expressive display of pain than did the other two groups (which were not different from each other), but no more autonomic or facial conditioning. The overall pattern of physiological data is interpreted as generally supportive of a facial feedback theory of emotion: where significant between-groups' differences were obtained in facial activity, as in vicarious instigation, autonomic arousal differences also emerged; where no expressive differences were obtained, as in vicarious conditioning, no differences in autonomic arousal were found.
This study in vestigated the merits of various theoretical rationales for predicting viewer's affective responses to the expressed emotions of a protagonist. A film depicting a child undergoning an emotion-inducing experience was produced in six versions and shown to elementary school children. The versions effectd a factorial variation in (a) the type of behavior exhibited by the protagonist in the initial sequences (malevolent, neutral, benevolent) and (b) the emotion expressed by the protagonist in the final sequence (euphoria, dysphoria). When the protagonist behaved benevolently or neutrally, the affective responses of viewers were concordant with those of the protagonist, but when he behaved malevolently, viewer's affective responses were discordant with his. The latter finding was seen to be in conflict with predictions based strictly on empathy. The rationale that was considered to account best for the findings was based on the assumption that the observer's affective disposition mediates the tendency to respond concordantly or discordantly to another's emotions.
Based upon current evolutionary theory and recent laboratory and field data, this paper introduces a behavioral-ecology view of human facial displays that contrasts with previous views of faces as innate, prototypic, "iconic" expressions of fundamental emotions. First, I detail the criteria for establishing genetic and epigenetic contributions to facial behavior. Under these criteria, cross-cultural communality in canonical facial displays implies neither their genetic control nor their fundamental relation to emotion. New findings reestablish phylogenetic continuity by showing that human facial displays and vigilance for them, like their nonhuman counterparts, coevolve in the service of social motives; faces issued in solitude typically reflect imaginary or implicit interaction. Two evolutionary trends are probably involved in shaping facial actions--emancipation of reflexes, and automatization of instrumental acts. Modern conceptions of genetic and cultural evolution, and knowledge about animal signaling, suggest new hypotheses regarding the origins and functions of facial displays. In so doing, they clarify how facial displays relate to reflexion, motive and intention, emotion and psychophysiology, and language and paralanguage.
Guidelines are proposed for the collection, analysis, and description of electromyographic (EMG) data. The guidelines cover technological issues in EMG recording, social aspects of EMG experimentation, and limits to inferences that can be drawn in EMG research. An atlas is proposed for facial EMG electrode placements, and standard EMG terminology is suggested.
Previous research has demonstrated that different patterns of facial muscle activity are correlated with different emotional states. In the present study subjects were exposed to pictures of happy and angry facial expressions, in response to which their facial electromyographic (EMG) activities, heart rate (HR), and palmar skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. It was found that happy and angry faces evoked different facial EMG response patterns, with increased zygomatic region activity to happy stimuli and increased corrugator region activity to angry stimuli. Furthermore, both happy and angry faced evoked HR decelerations and similar SCR magnitudes. The results are interpreted as suggesting that facial EMG recordings provide a method for distinguishing between response patterns to 'positive' and 'negative' emotional visual stimuli.
In 2 experiments, 35 undergraduates participated in the application of a long-interstimulus-interval differential conditioning paradigm with a confederate's videotaped expression of pain serving as the UCS. Facial EMG signals and skin conductance were recorded. Clear evidence of vicarious autonomic instigation and some evidence of facial excitation were obtained in Exp I, but vicarious autonomic and facial muscle conditioning were obtained only for the 50% of the Ss who were aware of the contingency between the CS+ and the model's pain. In Exp II, steps were taken to increase awareness of the contingency, and significant autonomic and facial muscle instigation and conditioning occurred. Both the vicariously instigated and conditioned autonomic responses involved skin conductance increases, but facial responses to the model's pain were different from conditioned facial responses. Autonomic and facial muscle data suggest that Ss were behaving as though they were anticipating shock when the CS+ was displayed to the model, and as though they were in pain when the model was being shocked. Vicariously aroused emotional reactions thus appear to be similar to those that would be elicited if the S were directly anticipating and receiving shock. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The present study had the goal to assess whether individuals mimic and show emotional contagion in response to relatively weak and idiosyncratic dynamic facial expressions of emotions similar to those encountered in everyday life. Furthermore, the question of whether mimicry leads to emotional contagion and in turn facilitates emotion recognition was addressed. Forty-one female participants rated a series of short video clips of stimulus persons expressing anger, sadness, disgust, and happiness regarding the emotions expressed. An unobtrusive measure of emotional contagion was taken. Evidence for mimicry was found for all types of expressions. Furthermore, evidence for emotional contagion of happiness and sadness was found. Mediational analyses could not confirm any relation between mimicry and emotional contagion nor between mimicry and emotion recognition.
Studies reveal that when people are exposed to emotional facial expressions, they spontaneously react with distinct facial electromyographic (EMG) reactions in emotion-relevant facial muscles. These reactions reflect, in part, a tendency to mimic the facial stimuli. We investigated whether corresponding facial reactions can be elicited when people are unconsciously exposed to happy and angry facial expressions. Through use of the backward-masking technique, the subjects were prevented from consciously perceiving 30-ms exposures of happy, neutral, and angry target faces, which immediately were followed and masked by neutral faces. Despite the fact that exposure to happy and angry faces was unconscious, the subjects reacted with distinct facial muscle reactions that corresponded to the happy and angry stimulus faces. Our results show that both positive and negative emotional reactions can be unconsciously evoked, and particularly that important aspects of emotional face-to-face communication can occur on an unconscious level.
Humans, infants and adults alike, automatically mimic a variety of behaviors. Such mimicry facilitates social functioning, including establishment of interpersonal rapport and understanding of other minds. This fundamental social process may thus be impaired in disorders such as autism characterized by socio-emotional and communicative deficits. We examined automatic and voluntary mimicry of emotional facial expression among adolescents and adults with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and a typical sample matched on age, gender and verbal intelligence. Participants viewed pictures of happy and angry expressions while the activity over their cheek and brow muscle region was monitored with electromyography (EMG). ASD participants did not automatically mimic facial expressions whereas the typically developing participants did. However, both groups showed evidence of successful voluntary mimicry. The data suggest that autism is associated with an impairment of a basic automatic social-emotion process. Results have implications for understanding typical and atypical social cognition.
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