Smiles as Multipurpose Social Signals

Martin, Jared; Rychlowska, Magdalena; Wood, Adrienne; Niedenthal, Paula M.

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2017.08.007

Cited by 154 publications

(143 citation statements)

References 107 publications

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“…These muscles can be activated independently or in synchrony with each other to form distinct facial expressions and transmit information about, for example, emotional states and intentions (Drake, Moses, Vogl, & Mitchell, 2014). In social interactions, a smiling face can reinforce specific behaviors in the perceiver through its rewarding qualities (Furl, Gallagher, & Averbeck, 2012;Martin et al, 2017;McLellan, Wilcke, Johnston, Watts, & Miles, 2012). Additionally, a previous study showed that in a decision-making task, participants displayed increased propensity to repeat actions reinforced with genuine smile feedback compared to a nonsocial feedback (Heerey, 2014).…”

Section: Smiles and Frowns Function As Reinforcing Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instrumental learning is a form of learning describing how the likelihood of performing certain behaviors is enhanced or diminished trough rewards and punishments, respectively (Skinner, 1953), and is naturally present in social interaction (Seymour, Singer, & Dolan, 2007). Facial expressions play a central role in social interaction (Jack & Schyns, 2015, 2017Martin et al, 2017), and we assume that it is likely that instrumental learning is involved in the optimization of facial expression selection and adaptation over time during interactive dyads. Given the ubiquity of instrumental learning to calibrate real-life social interaction, we designed a task where participants smiled and frowned towards smiling or frowning interactants.…”

Section: Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The face value of feedback: Facial behavior is shaped by goals and punishments during interaction with dynamic faces

Yi¹,

Pärnamets²,

Olsson³

2020

Preprint

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Responding appropriately to others’ facial expressions is key to successful social functioning and, depending on the identity of your interactive partner, it might save you from harm. Despite the large body of work on face perception and spontaneous responses to static faces, little is known about responses to faces in dynamic, naturalistic situations, and no study has investigated how people’s goal directed responses to faces are influenced by learning during dyadic interactions. Addressing this question, we developed a novel method based on online integration of electromyography (EMG) signals from the participants’ face (corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major). In this experiment (N = 58), participants’ EMG signals were recorded during their interaction with dynamic faces that either displayed happy or angry facial expressions. The participants’ task was to either reciprocate (congruent) or respond in the opposite manner (incongruent). Incorrect facial expressions were punished with a mild electrical shock to the participant’s wrist. Our results validated our new method, showing that participants learned to optimize their facial behavior over time, and replicated earlier findings of faster and more accurate responses in congruent vs. incongruent conditions. Moreover, participants performed better on trials when confronted with smiling, as compared to frowning, faces, suggesting it might be easier to adapt facial responses to positively associated expressions. Our results introduce a new method to study learning and decision-making in dynamic interactive social situations, in which there is a need to gradually adapt facial mimicry to both social and non-social reinforcements.

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Section: Smiles and Frowns Function As Reinforcing Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The face value of feedback: Facial behavior is shaped by goals and punishments during interaction with dynamic faces

Yi¹,

Pärnamets²,

Olsson³

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Future work should further examine the moderating sex effect, which could be due to participants' gendered mental representations, sex differences in vocalizations, or socialized gender differences in how social intentions are conveyed (McKeown, Sneddon, & Curran, 2014;Provine, 2001;Wood et al, 2017). Martin et al (2017) speculate that smiles-which also appear to accomplish the social tasks of reward, affiliation, and dominance-gain their social significance via the effect they have on vocalizations. Smiling raises the pitch and spectrum of a vocalization (Kohler, 2008), and people spread their lips when raising a vowel (e.g., overpronouncing "cheese" induces a smile).…”

Section: Future Directions Of the Social Functional Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a social functional account of laughter

Wood

Niedenthal

2018

Social & Personality Psych

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Laughter is ubiquitous, universal, and variable. This article develops a social functional account to explain the many physical forms laughter takes and the many social contexts in which it occurs. In contrast to previous perspectives that emphasize the internal state of the producer or the eliciting context, the current social functional account distinguishes laughter according to the behavioral intentions it conveys and the behavioral response it elicits in the recipient. The general function of human and nonhuman laughter is to signal harmless intentions, and within this function, we identify 3 distinct social tasks accomplished by human laughter.We propose that the first social function of laughter, both evolutionarily and developmentally, is to reward the behavior of others and reinforce the ongoing interaction. The second task accomplished by laughter is the easing of social tension and signaling of affiliation and nonthreat. A third form of laughter nonconfrontationally enforces social norms, negotiates status, and corrects undesirable behavior in others by conveying dominance or superiority. We propose that the acoustic modulations that communicate these social intentions follow principles common to human and nonhuman vocal signaling.

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“…A second aim of the present research was to explore the implications of more frequent smiling and laughter, certain types of which are associated with positive emotions (20,21). Thus, frequent smiles and laughter could be an indication that members of heterogeneous cultures also experience more positive emotions than members of homogeneous cultures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterogeneity of Long-History Migration Predicts Smiling, Laughter and Positive Emotion Across the Globe and Within the United States

Niedenthal

Rychlowska

Wood³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Recent findings demonstrate that heterogeneity of long-history migration predicts present-day emotion behaviors and norms. Residents of countries characterized by high ancestral diversity display emotion expressions that are easier to decode by observers, endorse norms of higher emotion expressivity, and smile more in response to certain stimuli than residents of countries that lack ancestral diversity. We build on the extant findings and investigate historical heterogeneity as a predictor of daily smiling, laughter, and positive emotion across the world’s countries and the states of the United States. Study 1 finds that historical heterogeneity is positively associated with self-reports of smiling, laughter, and positive emotions in the Gallup World Poll when controlling for GDP and current present-day population diversity. Study 2 extends the findings to effects of long-history migration within the United States. We estimated the average percentage of foreign-born citizens in each state between 1850 and 2010 based on US Census information as an indicator of historical heterogeneity. Consistent with the world findings of Study 1, historical heterogeneity predicted smiling, laughter, and positive, but not negative, emotion. The relationships remained significant when controlling for per capita income and present-day diversity of population of each state. Together, the findings further demonstrate the important role of long-history migration in shaping emotion cultures of countries and states, which persist beyond the original socio-ecological conditions, and open promising avenues for cross-cultural research.

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Smiles as Multipurpose Social Signals

Cited by 154 publications

References 107 publications

The face value of feedback: Facial behavior is shaped by goals and punishments during interaction with dynamic faces

The face value of feedback: Facial behavior is shaped by goals and punishments during interaction with dynamic faces

Developing a social functional account of laughter

Heterogeneity of Long-History Migration Predicts Smiling, Laughter and Positive Emotion Across the Globe and Within the United States

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