Individual Differences in the Recognition of Enjoyment Smiles: No Role for Perceptual–Attentional Factors and Autistic-Like Traits

Abstract

Adults show remarkable individual variation in the ability to detect felt enjoyment in smiles based on the Duchenne marker (Action Unit 6). It has been hypothesized that perceptual and attentional factors (possibly correlated to autistic-like personality traits in the normative range) play a major role in determining individual differences in recognition performance. Here, this hypothesis was tested in a sample of 100 young adults. Eye-tracking methodology was employed to assess patterns of visual attention during a smile recognition task. Results indicate that neither perceptual–attentional factors nor autistic-like personality traits contribute appreciably to individual differences in smile recognition.

Young children discriminate genuine from fake smiles and expect people displaying genuine smiles to be more prosocial

“…At first glance, this result might seem puzzling; however, it is important to note that similar results have been obtained with adults (Manera, Del Giudice, Grandi, & Colle, 2011;Perron & Roy-Charland, 2013). Perron and Roy-Charland (2013) suggest that this is because processing of the eye area is done very quickly and thus long looking toward the eyes is unnecessary.…”

Analysis of eye movements in the judgment of enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles

“…Indeed, individuals displaying the contraction of the orbicularis oculi are generally considered more positively by others on those dimensions. Adults also use the Duchenne marker in smile judgment tasks; smiles containing this marker being consistently referred to with labels such as “true enjoyment,” “happier,” “real or felt,” “really happy,” or “more genuine” (Frank et al, 1993; Manera et al, 2011; Gosselin et al, 2002a,b; Chartrand and Gosselin, 2005; Leppänen and Hietanen, 2007; Miles and Johnston, 2007; Ambadar et al, 2009; Krumhuber and Manstead, 2009; Thibault et al, 2009, 2012; Calvo et al, 2013). …”

“…Nevertheless, other factors suggest that further research remains necessary before ruling out the importance of the perceptual-attentional mechanisms in the recognition of enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles. For instance, data has not always been consistent across studies (Chartrand and Gosselin, 2005; Boraston et al, 2008; Gosselin et al, 2010b; Manera et al, 2011). In addition, research has mainly focused one of the cues that distinguish types of smiles (the Duchenne marker), while other morphological cues have received less attention.…”

“…One hypothesis that has been put forward to explain the difficulty associated with smile recognition relies on perceptual and attentional mechanisms (Chartrand and Gosselin, 2005; Del Giudice and Colle, 2007; Boraston et al, 2008; Gosselin et al, 2010b; Manera et al, 2011). In effect, researchers have suggested that difficulties in distinguishing types of smiles might be attributable to problems seeing the relevant indices or the lack of attention to these cues that would help in their judgment.…”

“…This hypothesis is a plausible explanation given that these indices have been reported as subtle, non-frequent and in some cases present in both situations: when the person is truly happy and when they are not (Ekman et al, 1981, 1988; Krumhuber and Manstead, 2009). However, recent data have shed doubt on the role of perceptual-attentional factors in the recognition of enjoyment smiles by showing no significant relationship between the smile judgment task and different measures of perceptual ability such as eye movements or action unit discrimination (Boraston et al, 2008; Manera et al, 2011). Nevertheless, other factors suggest that further research remains necessary before ruling out the importance of the perceptual-attentional mechanisms in the recognition of enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles.…”