Department of Psychology, Northeastern University.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2018 Mar;114(3):380-396. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000108. Epub 2018 Jan 25.
Emerging perspectives in neuroscience indicate that the brain functions predictively, constantly anticipating sensory input based on past experience. According to these perspectives, prediction signals impact perception, guiding and constraining experience. In a series of six behavioral experiments, we show that predictions about facial expressions drive social perception, deeply influencing how others are evaluated: individuals are judged as more likable and trustworthy when their facial expressions are anticipated, even in the absence of any conscious changes in felt affect. Moreover, the effect of predictions on social judgments extends to both real-world situations where such judgments have particularly high consequence (i.e., evaluating presidential candidates for an upcoming election), as well as to more basic perceptual processes that may underlie judgment (i.e., facilitated visual processing of expected expressions). The implications of these findings, including relevance for cross-cultural interactions, social stereotypes and mental illness, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
神经科学的新观点表明，大脑具有预测功能，根据过去的经验不断预测感官输入。根据这些观点，预测信号会影响感知，指导和限制经验。在一系列六项行为实验中，我们表明，对面部表情的预测会驱动社会感知，深刻影响对他人的评价：当个体的面部表情被预测到时，他们会被认为更可爱和值得信赖，即使在没有任何有意识的感觉变化的情况下也是如此。此外，预测对社会判断的影响不仅扩展到了具有高后果的现实情况（即，对即将到来的选举中的总统候选人进行评估），而且还扩展到了更基本的可能构成判断基础的感知过程（即，预期表情的视觉处理得到促进）。讨论了这些发现的意义，包括对跨文化互动、社会刻板印象和精神疾病的相关性。
