Laughing at funerals and frowning at weddings: Top-down influences of context-driven social judgments on emotional mimicry.

This research aimed to assess top-down effects of social judgments on (facial) emotional mimicry. Based on the mimicry as social regulator model (Hess & Fischer, 2013) and the notion that people can use emotion expressions as cues to an expresser's traits (Hareli & Hess, 2010), we predicted that participants judge expressers who show affectively deviant expressions more negatively, feel less close to them and, thus, show reduced mimicry. Participants saw smiles and sad expressions embedded in either a wedding or funeral scene (or neutral control). In Study 1, affectively deviant expressions were rated as inappropriate and led to less self-reported interpersonal closeness to the expresser. In Study 2, both happiness and sadness mimicry were affected by the normativeness of the expression. However, the specific effect varied. Participants mimicked both deviant and normative happy expressions only when they felt close to the expresser. However, in the case of deviant expressions, closeness was lower. When participants did not feel close to the expresser, their expression was neutral, that is, they did not mimic. Sadness was only mimicked when appropriate to the context, that is, when deemed a legitimate response and a valid appeal for help, regardless of closeness. In this sense, facial mimicry of sadness expression can be considered an empathic reaction. In sum, the present research shows strong evidence for a top-down effect of social judgments on mimicry. It further suggests that this effect differed as a function of emotion expression and the meaning and social appeal conveyed by that expression.