Effects of Emotional Expressions, Gaze, and Head Orientation on Person Perception in Social Situations

Bibliographic Data

ID16914530
AuthorsRaphaela E Kaisler (0000-0002-1891-3508, University of Vienna, corresponding author), Manuela M Marin (0000-0002-9657-1507, University of Vienna), Helmut Leder (0000-0003-3219-3671, University of Vienna)
Year2020
Volume10
Issue3
Publication date2020-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSAGE Open (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2158-2440 • E-ISSN: 2158-2440
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/2158244020940705
OpenAlexW4234749362
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited56

When an observer perceives and judges two persons next to each other, different types of social cues simultaneously arise from both perceived faces. Using a controlled stimulus set depicting this scenario (with two persons identified respectively as “target face” and “looking face”), we explored how emotional expressions, gaze, and head direction of the looking face affect the observers’ eye movements and judgments of the target face. The target face always displayed a neutral expression, gazing directly at the observer (“direct gaze”). The looking face showed either a direct gaze, looked toward the target face, or averted it. A total of 52 undergraduate students (25 males) freely viewed these scenes for 5 s while their eye movements were recorded, which was followed by collecting ratings of attractiveness and trustworthiness. Dwell times on target faces were longer when accompanied by a looking face with direct gaze, regardless of its emotional expression. However, participants looked longer on faces looking toward the target in the approach condition and fixated more often on target faces that were either next to an angry-looking face directly looking at them or to a happy-looking averted face. We found no gaze effect on faces that were looked at by another face and no significant correlation between observers’ dwell time and attractiveness or trustworthiness ratings of the target and looking face, indicating dissociated perception and judgment processes. Irrespective of the gaze direction, as expected, happy faces were judged as more attractive and trustworthy than angry faces. Future studies will need to examine this dynamic interplay of social cues in triadic scenes

Attractiveness · Cognitive psychology · Emotional expression · Face perception · Facial expression · Gaze · Perception · Social perception · Trustworthiness · Communication · Computer Science · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Face Recognition and Perception · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

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