The Pacified Face: Early Embodiment Processes and the Use of Dummies

Abstract

Few things affect us as much as facial expressions, as they inform us about others' feelings and intentions, thereby influencing our own emotions and behaviors. A substantial body of literature links the critical abilities of recognizing and understanding emotion displays with facial mimicry, a sensorimotor process involving rapid imitation of perceived expressions. For example, blocking or altering facial mimicry in adults leads to disruptions in judgments in emotion recognition or emotional language processing. The present review focuses on pacifier use in infancy, a common practice that has the potential to interfere with infants' facial movements in ways identical to laboratory paradigms designed to block facial mimicry. Despite this similarity and the widespread use of infant soothers, little is known about their long-term effects. Here we review studies exploring the psychological correlates and implications of pacifier use. In particular, we discuss how soothers may interfere with the development of social skills in infants and present evidence linking pacifier use with disrupted adults' mimicry of facial expressions displayed by infants. Other preliminary findings reveal negative correlations between the use of soothers and children's spontaneous facial mimicry as well as emotional competence of young adults. Such studies, although correlational, suggest that this widespread parenting practice may affect the development of social skills by influencing emotional coordination. We discuss the implications of these findings and propose avenues for future research that can provide insights into the role of embodied processes in the development of emotional competence and adult functioning.

All day‐long pacifier use and intelligence quotient in childhood: A birth cohort study

“…24 In addition, the presence of a pacifier can discourage the interaction between the child and their caregiver, making it less interesting and enjoyable. 11 It is known that attitudes or activities that promote child stimulation have impact on cognitive development-a fact that has been confirmed in the present cohort. 19 Other findings supporting this hypothesis are the negative effects of pacifier use on speech development.…”

“…1 A recent study found an association between delayed speech development and lower IQ scores in five-year-old children. 26 Recent studies [9][10][11] have suggested an association between pacifier use and emotional intelligence: children with longer duration of pacifier use more often showed emotional competence problems, that is, difficulties imitating other people's facial expressions and emotions, which in turn makes the expression of the child's own emotions more difficult. These problems can have a negative impact on the child's cognitive development.…”

“…Three hypotheses can be raised to explain the possible negative effect of pacifier use on intelligence: one is that pacifier use hinders speech development 8 ; another is that children using a pacifier interact less with their parents/caretakers, and as a consequence are less stimulated 7 ; and a third hypothesis is related to children's emotional and social competence, which is decreased in those with excessive use of pacifiers. [9][10][11] Subsequent studies assessing the association between breast feeding and IQ did not consider the possible confounding effect of pacifier use 12,13 ; no other studies have specifically investigated the association between pacifier use and IQ. Thus, the objective of the present study was to assess the association between the duration and intensity of pacifier use from 3 months to 4 years of age on IQ scores at 6 years of age in children from the 2004 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort.…”

Effects of posed smiling on memory for happy and sad facial expressions

“…The authors interpret these findings such that the usage of a pacifier leads to a reduction of facial mimicry processes in the user as well as to reduced facial mimicry reactions towards the user. While girls are thought to compensate for these negative consequences, boys are thought to be at the mercy of these consequences 9 .…”

“…Further, we expected the teeth-manipulation to increase facial feedback of smiling, which in turn affects memory performance. Finally, following findings suggesting gender effects on recognition of emotional faces 28 , 29 as well as on facial mimicry 5 – 9 , we assumed that memory performance might differ between women and men.…”