The congruent facial response of a receiver may change a sender's facial display in subsequent facial communication. Senders were requested to smile and frown at a receiver of computer-synthesized animation and to rate how likeable the receiver was after the “interaction.” It was observed that a congruent facial response maintained the sender's facial expression longer than an incongruent response did. The results of the questionnaire revealed that senders reported a greater likeability for smiling receivers than for those who frowned. Likeability ratings did not depend on the congruency of the receiver's response but simply on whether the receiver was smiling or frowning.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BavelasJ. B.BlackA.LemeryC. R.MullettJ. (1986) “I show how you feel”: Motor mimicry as a communicative act. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 322–329.
2.
BavelasJ. B.BlackA.LemeryC. R.MullettJ. (1987) Motor mimicry as primitive empathy. In EisenbergN.StrayerJ. (Eds.), Empathy and its development. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univer. Press. Pp. 317–338.
ChandrasiriN. P.NaemuraT.HarashimaH. (2004) Interactive analysis and synthesis of facial expressions based on personal facial expression space. Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition. Pp. 105–110.
5.
CharnyE. J. (1966) Psychosomatic manifestations of rapport in psychotherapy. Psychosomatic Medicine, 28, 305–315.
6.
ChartrandT. L.BarghJ. A. (1999) The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 893–910.
7.
ChovilN. (1991) Social determinants of facial displays. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 15, 141–154.
8.
DarwinC. (1872/1965) The expression of emotions in man and animals. Chicago, IL: Univer. of Chicago Press.
9.
DimbergU. (1982) Facial reactions to facial expressions. Psychophysiology, 19, 643–647.
10.
DimbergU.ÖhmanA. (1983) The effects of directional facial cues on electrodermal conditioning to facial stimuli. Psychophysiology, 20, 160–167.
DunlapW. P.CortinaJ. M.VaslowJ. B.BurkeM. J. (1996) Meta-analysis of experiments with matched groups or repeated measures designs. Psychological Methods, 2, 170–177.
13.
EkmanP.FriesenW. V. (1969) The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1, 49–98.
14.
EkmanP.FriesenW. V. (1975) Unmasking the face. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
15.
FieldT. M.WoodsonR.GreenbergR.CohenD. (1981) Discrimination and imitation of facial expressions by neonates. Science, 218, 179–181.
16.
FrankM. G.EkmanP.FriesenW. V. (1993) Behavioral markers and recognizability of the smile of enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 83–93.
17.
FridlundA. J. (1991) Evolution and facial action in reflex, social motive, and paralanguage. Biological Psychology, 32, 3–100.
18.
HarwoodN. K.HallL. J.ShinkfieldA. J. (1999) Recognition of facial emotional expressions from moving and static displays by individuals with mental retardation. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 104, 270–278.
19.
HatfieldF.CacioppoJ. T.RapsonR. L. (1992) Primitive emotional contagion. In ClarkM. S. (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology. Vol. 14. Emotion and social behavior. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Pp. 151–177.
20.
HatfieldE.CacioppoJ. T.RapsonR. L. (1993) Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 96–99.
21.
HessU.BlairyS. (2001) Facial mimicry and emotional contagion to dynamic emotional facial expressions and their influence on decoding accuracy. International Journal of Psychophysiology40, 129–141.
22.
HessU.KappasA.BanseR. (1995) The intensity of facial expression is determined by underlying affective state and social situation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 280–288.
23.
HessU.KleckR. E. (1990) Differentiating emotion elicited and deliberate emotional facial expressions. European Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 369–385.
24.
HessU.PhilippotP.BlairyS. (1998) Facial reactions to emotional facial expressions: Affect or cognition?Cognition and Emotion, 12, 509–531.
25.
HinszV. B.TomhaveJ. A. (1991) Smile and (half) the world smiles with you, frown and you frown alone. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 586–592.
26.
HseeC. K.HatfieldE.CarlsonJ. G. (1990) The effect of power on susceptibility to emotional contagion. Cognition and Emotion, 4, 327–340.
27.
IchikawaH.MakinoJ. (2004) Concordance of facial reactions to facial expressions. Japanese Journal of Psychology, 75, 142–147.
28.
JönssonP.Sonnby-BorgströmM. (2003) The effects of pictures of emotional faces on tonic and phasic autonomic cardiac control in women and men. Biologial Psychology, 62, 157–173.
29.
JorgensonD. O. (1978) Nonverbal assessment of attitudinal affect with the smile-return technique. Journal of Social Psychology, 106, 173–179.
30.
KamachiM.BruceV.MukaidaS.GyobaJ.YoshikawaS.AkamatsuS. (2001) Dynamic properties influence the perception of facial expressions. Perception, 30, 875–887.
31.
KrumhuberE.KappasA. (2005) Moving smiles: The role of dynamic components for the perception of the genuineness of smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 29, 3–24.
32.
LaFranceM. (1979) Nonverbal synchrony and rapport: Analysis by the cross-lag panel technique. Social Psychology Quarterly, 42, 66–70.
33.
LaFranceM.BroadbentM. (1976) Group rapport: Posture sharing as a nonverbal indicator. Group & Organization Studies, 1, 328–333.
34.
LakinJ. L.JefferisV. E.ChengC. M.ChartrandT. L. (2003) The chameleon effect as social glue: Evidence for the evolutionary significance of nonconscious mimicry. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 27, 145–162.
35.
LundqvistL. O. (1995) Facial EMG reactions to facial expressions: A case of facial emotional contagion?Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 36, 130–141.
36.
LundqvistL. O.DimbergU. (1995) Facial expressions are contagious. Journal of Psychophysiology, 9, 203–211.
37.
MeltzoffA. N.MooreM. K. (1977) Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198, 75–78.
38.
ÖhmanA.DimbergU. (1978) Facial expressions as conditioned stimuli for electrodermal responses: A case of “preparedness”?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 1251–1258.
39.
RussellJ. A. (1994) Is there universal recognition of emotion from facial expression?Psychological Bulletin, 115, 102–141.
40.
SatoW.YoshikawaS. (2007) Spontaneous facial mimicry in response to dynamic facial expressions. Cognition, 104, 1–18.
41.
ScheflenA. E. (1964) The significance of posture in communication systems. Psychiatry, 27, 316–331.
42.
Sonnby-BorgströmM.JönssonP.SvenssonO. (2003) Emotional empathy as related to mimicry reactions at different levels of information processing. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 27, 3–23.
43.
TepperD. T.HaaseR. F. (1978) Verbal and nonverbal communication of facilitative conditions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 25, 35–44.
44.
van BaarenR. B.HollandR. W.KawakamiK.van KnippenbergA. (2004) Mimicry and prosocial behavior. Psychological Science, 15, 71–74.
45.
van BaarenR. B.HollandR. W.SteenaertB.van KnippenbergA. (2002) Mimicry for money: Behavioral consequences of imitation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 393–398.
46.
WallbottH. G. (1991) Recognition of emotion from facial expression via imitation? Some indirect evidence for an old theory. British Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 207–219.
47.
WallbottH. G. (1995) Congruence, contagion, and motor mimicry: Mutualities in nonverbal exchange. In MarkovaI.GraumannC. F.FoppaK. (Eds.), Mutualities in dialogue. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univer. Press. Pp. 82–98.
48.
WeyersP.MühlbergerA.HefeleC.PauliP. (2006) Electromyographic responses to static and dynamic avatar emotional facial expressions. Psychophysiology, 43, 450–453.
49.
WildB.ErbM.BartelsM. (2001) Are emotions contagious? Evoked emotions while viewing emotionally expressive faces: Quality, quantity, time course and gender differences. Psychiatry Research, 102, 109–124.
