Saarland University, Germany.
University of Salzburg, Austria.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2021 Feb;213:103249. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103249. Epub 2021 Jan 8.
The present research investigated facial mimicry of the basic emotions joy, anger, and sadness in response to stimuli in different formats. Specifically, in an electromyography study, 120 participants rated the expressions of joyful, angry, and sad faces presented as photographs or stick figures while facial muscle activity was measured. Using both frequentist and Bayesian approaches to hypothesis testing, we found strong support for a facial mimicry effect: Participants showed higher zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi activity (smiling) towards joyful faces, while they showed higher corrugator supercilii activity (frowning) towards angry and sad faces. Although participants rated the stick figures as more abstract and less interesting stimuli, the mimicry effect was equally strong and independent of the format in which the faces were presented (photographs or stick figures). Additionally, participants showed enhanced emotion recognition for stick figures compared to photographs, which, however, was unrelated to mimicry. The findings suggest that facial mimicry occurs in response to stimuli varying in their abstractness and might be more robust to social-cognitive influences than previously assumed.
本研究调查了在不同格式的刺激下，基本情绪（喜悦、愤怒和悲伤）的面部模仿。具体来说，在一项肌电图研究中，120 名参与者在测量面部肌肉活动的同时，对作为照片或简笔人物画呈现的快乐、愤怒和悲伤面孔的表情进行了评分。使用频率论和贝叶斯假设检验方法，我们强烈支持面部模仿效应：参与者对快乐的面孔表现出更高的颧大肌和眼轮匝肌活动（微笑），而对愤怒和悲伤的面孔则表现出更高的皱眉肌活动（皱眉）。尽管参与者将简笔人物画评为更抽象和无趣的刺激，但模仿效应同样强烈，且不受呈现面孔的格式（照片或简笔人物画）的影响。此外，与照片相比，参与者对简笔人物画的情绪识别能力增强，但这种增强与模仿无关。这些发现表明，面部模仿会对抽象程度不同的刺激做出反应，并且可能比之前假设的更能抵御社会认知的影响。
