Center for Research on Biological Basis of Social Behavior, SWPS University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Cogn Emot. 2024 Jun;38(4):530-548. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2024.2310759. Epub 2024 Feb 2.
Research indicates that emotional mimicry predominantly occurs in response to affiliative displays, such as happiness, while the mimicry of antagonistic displays, like anger, is seldom observed in social contexts. However, contextual factors, including the identity of the displayer (e.g. social similarity with the observer) and whose action triggered the emotional reaction (i.e. to whom display is directed), can modulate the meaning of the display. In two experiments, participants observed happiness, sadness, and anger expressed by individuals with similar or different social attitudes in response to actions from either a participant or another person. Results demonstrated that three manipulated factors - displayer social similarity, whose action caused an emotional display, and the type of emotional display - affected participants' perception of the display. In turn, mimicry was predominantly observed in response to happiness (Experiments 1 and 2), to a lesser extent to sadness (Experiment 1), and not to anger. Furthermore, participants mimicked individuals who were more socially similar (Experiment 1), while whose action caused an emotional reaction did not influence mimicry. The findings suggest that when the context mitigates the meaning of negative or antagonistic facial displays, it does not necessarily increase the inclination to mimic them.
研究表明，情绪模仿主要发生在对亲和性表现（如快乐）的反应中，而在社交环境中很少观察到对敌对性表现（如愤怒）的模仿。然而，上下文因素，包括表现者的身份（例如与观察者的社会相似性）和引发情绪反应的行为（即表现的对象），可以调节表现的含义。在两项实验中，参与者观察了具有相似或不同社会态度的个体对来自参与者或另一个人的行为表现出的快乐、悲伤和愤怒。结果表明，三个操纵因素——表现者的社会相似性、引起情绪表现的行为以及情绪表现的类型——影响了参与者对表现的感知。反过来，模仿主要发生在对快乐（实验 1 和实验 2）的反应中，对悲伤的反应较少（实验 1），而不是愤怒。此外，参与者模仿与自己更具社会相似性的个体（实验 1），而引发情绪反应的行为并不影响模仿。这些发现表明，当情境减轻了负面或敌对的面部表情的含义时，它不一定会增加模仿它们的倾向。
