Department of Psychology "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Centro Studi e Ricerche in Neuroscienze Cognitive, Department of Psychology "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Campus di Cesena, Cesena, Italy.
PLoS One. 2024 Apr 18;19(4):e0290590. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290590. eCollection 2024.
Spontaneous smiles in response to politicians can serve as an implicit barometer for gauging electorate preferences. However, it is unclear whether a subtle Duchenne smile-an authentic expression involving the coactivation of the zygomaticus major (ZM) and orbicularis oculi (OO) muscles-would be elicited while reading about a favored politician smiling, indicating a more positive disposition and political endorsement. From an embodied simulation perspective, we investigated whether written descriptions of a politician's smile would trigger morphologically different smiles in readers depending on shared or opposing political orientation. In a controlled reading task in the laboratory, participants were presented with subject-verb phrases describing left and right-wing politicians smiling or frowning. Concurrently, their facial muscular reactions were measured via electromyography (EMG) recording at three facial muscles: the ZM and OO, coactive during Duchenne smiles, and the corrugator supercilii (CS) involved in frowning. We found that participants responded with a Duchenne smile detected at the ZM and OO facial muscles when exposed to portrayals of smiling politicians of same political orientation and reported more positive emotions towards these latter. In contrast, when reading about outgroup politicians smiling, there was a weaker activation of the ZM muscle and no activation of the OO muscle, suggesting a weak non-Duchenne smile, while emotions reported towards outgroup politicians were significantly more negative. Also, a more enhanced frown response in the CS was found for ingroup compared to outgroup politicians' frown expressions. Present findings suggest that a politician's smile may go a long way to influence electorates through both non-verbal and verbal pathways. They add another layer to our understanding of how language and social information shape embodied effects in a highly nuanced manner. Implications for verbal communication in the political context are discussed.
自发的微笑可以作为衡量选民偏好的隐性指标。然而，当读到喜欢的政治家微笑时，人们是否会露出微妙的杜兴式微笑（一种涉及颧大肌和眼轮匝肌协同活动的真实表情），从而表明他们对政治人物有更积极的态度和支持，目前还不清楚。从具身模拟的角度来看，我们研究了书面描述政治家的微笑是否会根据读者的政治立场（一致或对立）引发不同的微笑。在实验室的受控阅读任务中，参与者阅读了描述左翼和右翼政治家微笑或皱眉的主谓短语。同时，通过肌电图（EMG）记录测量了三个面部肌肉（颧大肌和眼轮匝肌，杜兴式微笑时协同活动；皱眉肌）的肌肉反应。我们发现，当参与者看到具有相同政治立场的政治家微笑的描述时，他们会做出杜兴式微笑，这可以在颧大肌和眼轮匝肌上检测到，并且对这些政治家的情绪更为积极。相比之下，当阅读外群体政治家微笑的描述时，颧大肌的激活较弱，眼轮匝肌没有激活，表明这是一种较弱的非杜兴式微笑，而对外群体政治家的情绪反应明显更为消极。此外，与外群体政治家的皱眉表情相比，内群体政治家的皱眉表情会引起更强的皱眉肌反应。这些发现表明，政治家的微笑可以通过非语言和语言途径对选民产生深远的影响。它们为我们理解语言和社会信息如何以高度微妙的方式塑造具身效应增添了另一层理解。本文还讨论了政治语境下言语交际的影响。
