The automaticity of emotional face-context integration.

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that context can dramatically influence the recognition of basic facial expressions, yet the nature of this phenomenon is largely unknown. In the present paper we begin to characterize the underlying process of face-context integration. Specifically, we examine whether it is a relatively controlled or automatic process. In Experiment 1 participants were motivated and instructed to avoid using the context while categorizing contextualized facial expression, or they were led to believe that the context was irrelevant. Nevertheless, they were unable to disregard the context, which exerted a strong effect on their emotion recognition. In Experiment 2, participants categorized contextualized facial expressions while engaged in a concurrent working memory task. Despite the load, the context exerted a strong influence on their recognition of facial expressions. These results suggest that facial expressions and their body contexts are integrated in an unintentional, uncontrollable, and relatively effortless manner.

Holistic person processing: Faces with bodies tell the whole story.

“…In fact, under certain conditions, incongruent body context can dramatically shift the emotional category recognized in basic facial expressions (Aviezer, Hassin, Ryan, et al, 2008). Indeed, participants cannot disregard the body even if they have no reason to process it or if they are explicitly instructed and motivated (via a monetary reward) to ignore it (Aviezer, Bentin, Dudarev, & Hassin, 2011).…”

Social interaction contexts bias the perceived expressions of interactants.

“…The perceived expression of a target face is also affected by vocal cues (de Gelder & Vroomen, 2000), concurrently presented visual scenes (Righart & de Gelder, 2008), and surrounding faces (in Japanese, but not Western participants; Masuda et al, 2008). The influence of context often occurs despite explicit instructions to disregard extraneous information (Aviezer, Bentin, Dudarev, & Hassin, 2011). However, susceptibility to context effects can be affected by socio-psychological factors such as personality (Lee, Choi, & Cho, 2012), and the type of contextual cue (Ngo & Isaacowitz, 2015).…”

Typical integration of emotion cues from bodies and faces in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…These findings imply that the attribution of affective states involves the integration of emotion cues from across the face and body. The influence of posture contexts is often automatic; it occurs despite explicit instructions to disregard non-face information (Aviezer, Bentin, Dudarev, & Hassin, 2011), and modulates early neurophysiological markers of visual person processing (Meeren, van Heijnsbergen, & de Gelder, 2005).…”