The effects of self-relevance vs. reward value on facial mimicry

Autor(en)

Paul Forbes, Sebastian Korb, Alexandra Radloff, Claus Lamm

Abstrakt

Facial mimicry is a ubiquitous social behaviour modulated by a range of social cues, including those related to reward value and self-relevance. However, previous research has typically focused on a single moderator at a time, and it remains unknown how moderators interact when studied together. We compared the influence of reward value and self-relevance, by conditioning participants to associate certain faces with winning or losing money for themselves, or, with winning or losing money for another person. After conditioning, participants watched videos of these faces making happy and angry facial expressions whilst we recorded facial electromyographic activity. We found greater smile mimicry (activation of the Zygomaticus Major muscle) in response to happy expressions performed by faces associated with participants' own outcomes vs. faces associated with another person's outcomes. In contrast to previous research, whether a face was associated with winning or losing money did not modulate facial mimicry responses. These results, although preliminary, suggest that when faces are associated with both self-relevance and reward value, self-relevance could supersede the impact of reward value during facial mimicry.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Psychologie der Kognition, Emotion und Methoden, Institut für Klinische und Gesundheitspsychologie

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Essex

Journal

Acta Psychologica

Band

212

Anzahl der Seiten

7

ISSN

0001-6918

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103193

Publikationsdatum

01-2021

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

501006 Experimentalpsychologie

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/f97d965f-1e50-414b-9d06-3a594277f73f