The contingent smile: a meta-analysis of sex differences in smiling

Compared to men, women view professional advancement as equally attainable, but less desirable

Women are underrepresented in most high-level positions in organizations. Though a great deal of research has provided evidence that bias and discrimination give rise to and perpetuate this gender disparity, in the current research we explore another explanation: men and women view professional advancement differently, and their views affect their decisions to climb the corporate ladder (or not). In studies 1 and 2, when asked to list their core goals in life, women listed more life goals overall than men, and a smaller proportion of their goals related to achieving power at work. In studies 3 and 4, compared to men, women viewed high-level positions as less desirable yet equally attainable. In studies 5-7, when faced with the possibility of receiving a promotion at their current place of employment or obtaining a high-power position after graduating from college, women and men anticipated similar levels of positive outcomes (e.g., prestige and money), but women anticipated more negative outcomes (e.g., conflict and tradeoffs). In these studies, women associated high-level positions with conflict, which explained the relationship between gender and the desirability of professional advancement. Finally, in studies 8 and 9, men and women alike rated power as one of the main consequences of professional advancement. Our findings reveal that men and women have different perceptions of what the experience of holding a high-level position will be like, with meaningful implications for the perpetuation of the gender disparity that exists at the top of organizational hierarchies.

Short alleles, bigger smiles? The effect of 5-HTTLPR on positive emotional expressions

The present research examined the effect of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene on objectively coded positive emotional expressions (i.e., laughing and smiling behavior objectively coded using the Facial Action Coding System). Three studies with independent samples of participants were conducted. Study 1 examined young adults watching still cartoons. Study 2 examined young, middle-aged, and older adults watching a thematically ambiguous yet subtly amusing film clip. Study 3 examined middle-aged and older spouses discussing an area of marital conflict (that typically produces both positive and negative emotion). Aggregating data across studies, results showed that the short allele of 5-HTTLPR predicted heightened positive emotional expressions. Results remained stable when controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, and depressive symptoms. These findings are consistent with the notion that the short allele of 5-HTTLPR functions as an emotion amplifier, which may confer heightened susceptibility to environmental conditions.

The adaptive value associated with expressing and perceiving angry-male and happy-female faces

Facial expressions are valuable for conveying and understanding the inner thoughts and feelings of the expressor. However, the adaptive value associated with a specific expression on a male face is different from a female face. The present review uses a functional-evolutionary analysis to elucidate the evolutionary advantage in the expression and perception of angry-male and happy-female faces over angry-female and happy-male faces. For the expressors, it is more advantageous for men to show angry facial expression as it signals dominance, averts aggression and deters mate poaching; it is more advantageous for women to display happy facial expression as it signals their willingness for childcare, tending and befriending. For the perceivers, those sensitive to angry men avoid being physically harmed while those sensitive to happy women gain social support. Extant evidence suggests that facial structure and cognitive mechanisms evolved to express and perceive angry-male and happy-female faces more efficiently compared to angry-female and happy-male faces.

Social status modulates prosocial behavior and egalitarianism in preschool children and adults

Humans are a cooperative species, capable of altruism and the creation of shared norms that ensure fairness in society. However, individuals with different educational, cultural, economic, or ethnic backgrounds differ in their levels of social investment and endorsement of egalitarian values. We present four experiments showing that subtle cues to social status (i.e., prestige and reputation in the eyes of others) modulate prosocial orientation. The experiments found that individuals who experienced low status showed more communal and prosocial behavior, and endorsed more egalitarian life goals and values compared with those who experienced high status. Behavioral differences across high- and low-status positions appeared early in human ontogeny (4-5 y of age).

Gender and Emotion Expression: A Developmental Contextual Perspective

Small but significant gender differences in emotion expressions have been reported for adults, with women showing greater emotional expressivity, especially for positive emotions and internalizing negative emotions such as sadness. But when, developmentally, do these gender differences emerge? And what developmental and contextual factors influence their emergence? This article describes a developmental bio-psycho-social model of gender differences in emotion expression in childhood. Prior empirical research supporting the model, at least with mostly White middle-class U.S. samples of youth, is presented. Limitations to the extant literature and future directions for research on gender and child emotion are suggested.

Gender Differences in the Perceptions of Genuine and Simulated Laughter and Amused Facial Expressions

This article addresses gender differences in laughter and smiling from an evolutionary perspective. Laughter and smiling can be responses to successful display behavior or signals of affiliation amongst conversational partners—differing social and evolutionary agendas mean there are different motivations when interpreting these signals. Two experiments assess perceptions of genuine and simulated male and female laughter and amusement social signals. Results show male simulation can always be distinguished. Female simulation is more complicated as males seem to distinguish cues of simulation yet judge simulated signals to be genuine. Females judge other female’s genuine signals to have higher levels of simulation. Results highlight the importance of laughter and smiling in human interactions, use of dynamic stimuli, and using multiple methodologies to assess perception.

The Intersection of Gender-Related Facial Appearance and Facial Displays of Emotion

The human face conveys a myriad of social meanings within an overlapping array of features. Herein, we examine such features within the context of gender-emotion stereotypes. First we detail the pervasive set of gender-emotion expectations known to exist. We then review new research revealing that gender cues and emotion expression often share physical properties that represent a confound of overlapping features characteristic of low versus high facial maturity/dominance. As such, gender-related facial appearance and facial expression of emotions often share social meaning and physical resemblance. Thus, stereotypic and phenotypic information conveyed by the face are intertwined—sometimes confounded, sometimes clashing. We discuss implications of this work for gender-emotion stereotypes, as well as for emotion and face processing more generally.

What Drives the Smile and the Tear: Why Women Are More Emotionally Expressive Than Men

In this article we examine gender differences in nonverbal expressiveness, with a particular focus on crying and smiling. We show that women cry and smile more as well as show more facial expressiveness in general, but that the size of this gender difference varies with the social and emotional context. We interpret this variation within a contextual framework (see also Brody & Hall, 2008; Deaux & Major, 1987; LaFrance, Hecht, & Paluck, 2003). More specifically, we distinguish three factors that predict the size of gender differences in emotional expressiveness: gender-specific norms, social role and situational constraints, and emotional intensity. These factors interact in different ways for smiling and crying.

Assessment of Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Beliefs

In the present article, we present a review of the current status of the art with regard to the construct of regulatory emotional self-efficacy beliefs. We start with the definition of the psychological construct of regulatory emotional self-efficacy beliefs, presenting its theoretical status within the broader theory of self-efficacy, in the social-cognitive theory. Then, we offer a broad perspective on the evaluation of the construct, by introducing the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy (RESE) scale. This instrument assesses two broad factors, self-efficacy in managing negative emotions (NEG) and self-efficacy beliefs in expressing positive emotions (POS). We review studies attesting to the reliability of the instrument and reporting gender differences in NEG and POS self-efficacy beliefs. Developmental trajectories of POS and NEG self-efficacy beliefs are also presented, and their pervasiveness is demonstrated with reference to results of several empirical studies. We also discuss differences between regulatory emotional self-efficacy beliefs and constructs classically associated to self-regulation. A critical evaluation of the field of research on regulatory emotional self-efficacy beliefs and suggestions on how to move the field forward is offered.

Alcohol and Emotional Contagion: An Examination of the Spreading of Smiles in Male and Female Drinking Groups

Researchers have hypothesized that men gain greater reward from alcohol than women. However, alcohol-administration studies testing participants drinking alone have offered weak support for this hypothesis. Research suggests that social processes may be implicated in gender differences in drinking patterns. We examined the impact of gender and alcohol on "emotional contagion"-a social mechanism central to bonding and cohesion. Social drinkers (360 male, 360 female) consumed alcohol, placebo, or control beverages in groups of three. Social interactions were video recorded, and both Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiling were continuously coded using the Facial Action Coding System. Results revealed that Duchenne smiling (but not non-Duchenne smiling) contagion correlated with self-reported reward and typical drinking patterns. Importantly, Duchenne smiles were significantly less "infectious" among sober male versus female groups, and alcohol eliminated these gender differences in smiling contagion. Findings identify new directions for research exploring social-reward processes in the etiology of alcohol problems.

Diminished emotion expressivity but not experience in men and women with schizophrenia

Prior studies indicate that men with schizophrenia are less outwardly expressive but report similar emotion experience as healthy people. However, it is unclear whether women with schizophrenia show this same disconnect between expressivity and experience. Men (n = 24) and women (n = 25) with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and women without schizophrenia (n = 25) viewed emotionally evocative film clips and were video recorded to assess facial expressivity. Participants also reported their emotion experience after each clip. Men and women with schizophrenia did not significantly differ from one another in the frequency of facial expressions, but both groups exhibited fewer expressions than women without schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia also reported lower levels of trait expressivity compared with women without schizophrenia. Overall, people with schizophrenia did not differ from controls on self-reported emotion experience with one exception: Women with schizophrenia reported more unpleasant emotion than controls. These results indicate that both women and men with schizophrenia exhibit fewer outward expressions but experience comparable emotion experience as people without schizophrenia.

The cognitive costs of the counter-stereotypic: gender, emotion, and social presence

We explored the concurrent and subsequent cognitive consequences of the experience of gender counter-stereotypic emotions. Participants experiencing gender counter-stereotypic emotions were expected to display less emotional expression and demonstrate poorer cognitive performance when in the public condition than when in the private condition. Seventy-one women and 66 men completed an anger- or sadness-inducing task privately or publicly. Participants completed two cognitive tasks: one during and one after the emotion-induction task. Participants exhibited poorer performance during and following gender counter-stereotypic emotions only in the public condition. Direct evidence for greater suppression of gender counter-stereotypic emotions in the public conditions was not obtained. These results suggest that the same public emotional events may be differentially cognitively depleting depending on one's gender, potentially contributing to the perpetuation of stereotypes.

Teasing, taunting, and the politics of politeness: high sociometric status is associated with expectation-consistent behavior

Research examining face-to-face status hierarchies suggests that individuals attain respect and admiration by engaging in behavior that influences others' judgments of their value to the group. Building on this research, we expected that high-status individuals would be less likely to engage in behaviors that violate group norms and expectations, relative to low-status individuals. Adolescent participants took part in an interaction in which they teased an opposite-gender friend (Study 1) or an experiment in which taunting or cheering expectations were manipulated (Study 2). Consistent with the hypothesis, high-status boys and girls engaged in teasing behaviors consistent with their gender roles, relative to their low status counterparts (Study 1). In Study 2, high-status boys engaged in more direct provocation and off-record commentary while taunting, and more affiliative behavior while cheering on their partner, relative to low-status boys. Discussion focused on how expectation-consistent actions help individuals maintain elevated status.

Forming impressions: effects of facial expression and gender stereotypes

The present study of 138 participants explored how facial expressions and gender stereotypes influence impressions. It was predicted that images of smiling women would be evaluated more favorably on traits reflecting warmth, and that images of non-smiling men would be evaluated more favorably on traits reflecting competence. As predicted, smiling female faces were rated as more warm; however, contrary to prediction, perceived competence of male faces was not affected by facial expression. Participants' female stereotype endorsement was a significant predictor for evaluations of female faces; those who ascribed more strongly to traditional female stereotypes reported the most positive impressions of female faces displaying a smiling expression. However, a similar effect was not found for images of men; endorsement of traditional male stereotypes did not predict participants' impressions of male faces.

It is better to smile to women: gender modifies perception of honesty of smiling individuals across cultures

Social perception studies have revealed that smiling individuals are perceived more favourably on many communion dimensions in comparison to nonsmiling individuals. Research on gender differences in smiling habits showed that women smile more than men. In our study, we investigated this phenomena further and hypothesised that women perceive smiling individuals as more honest than men. An experiment conducted in seven countries (China, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Republic of South Africa and USA) revealed that gender may influence the perception of honesty in smiling individuals. We compared ratings of honesty made by male and female participants who viewed photos of smiling and nonsmiling people. While men and women did not differ on ratings of honesty in nonsmiling individuals, women assessed smiling individuals as more honest than men did. We discuss these results from a social norms perspective.

Gender differences in emotional responses to cooperative and competitive game play

Previous research indicates that males prefer competition over cooperation, and it is sometimes suggested that females show the opposite behavioral preference. In the present article, we investigate the emotions behind the preferences: Do males exhibit more positive emotions during competitive than cooperative activities, and do females show the opposite pattern? We conducted two experiments where we assessed the emotional responses of same-gender dyads (in total 130 participants, 50 female) during intrinsically motivating competitive and cooperative digital game play using facial electromyography (EMG), skin conductance, heart rate measures, and self-reported emotional experiences. We found higher positive emotional responses (as indexed by both physiological measures and self-reports) during competitive than cooperative play for males, but no differences for females. In addition, we found no differences in negative emotions, and heart rate, skin conductance, and self-reports yielded contradictory evidence for arousal. These results support the hypothesis that males not only prefer competitive over cooperative play, but they also exhibit more positive emotional responses during them. In contrast, the results suggest that the emotional experiences of females do not differ between cooperation and competition, which implies that less competitiveness does not mean more cooperativeness. Our results pertain to intrinsically motivated game play, but might be relevant also for other kinds of activities.

Lying in neuropsychology

The issue of lying occurs in neuropsychology especially when examinations are conducted in a forensic context. When a subject intentionally either presents non-existent deficits or exaggerates their severity to obtain financial or material compensation, this behaviour is termed malingering. Malingering is discussed in the general framework of lying in psychology, and the different procedures used by neuropsychologists to evidence a lack of collaboration at examination are briefly presented and discussed. When a lack of collaboration is observed, specific emphasis is placed on the difficulty in unambiguously establishing that this results from the patient's voluntary decision.

Gender, smiling, and witness credibility in actual trials

It has been acknowledged that females exhibit more smiling behaviors than males, but there has been little attention to this gender difference in the courtroom. Although both male and female witnesses exhibit smiling behaviors, there has been no research examining the subsequent effect of gender and smiling on witness credibility. This study used naturalistic observation to examine smiling behaviors and credibility in actual witnesses testifying in court. Raters assessed the smiling behaviors and credibility (as measured by the Witness Credibility Scale) of 32 male and female witnesses testifying in trials in a mid-sized Southern city. "Credibility raters" rated the perceived likeability, trustworthiness, confidence, knowledge, and overall credibility of the witnesses using the Witness Credibility Scale. "Smile raters" noted smiling frequency and types, including speaking/expressive and listening/receptive smiles. Gender was found to affect perceived trustworthiness ratings, in which male witnesses were seen as more trustworthy than female witnesses. No significant differences were found in the smiling frequency for male and female witnesses. However, the presence of smiling was found to contribute to perceived likeability of a witness. Smiling female witnesses were found to be more likeable than smiling male and non-smiling female witnesses.

Power Plays

Both transient and stable facial cues have evolved as essential features of social communication in humans. Accumulating research links actual and perceived aggression to a higher ratio between the height and bizygomatic width of a person’s face (facial width-to-height ratio [WHR]) and shows that digitally increasing this ratio can alter apparent aggressiveness. We present evidence that facial behaviors associated with anger—the state most closely associated with aggressive intentions—also increase facial WHR, mimicking the facial morphology of aggressive individuals. In Study 1, individuals induced to appear aggressive naturally increased their facial WHR using anger-related facial behaviors. In Study 2, we found that validated anger expressions increased facial WHR and that this change predicts increased attributions of aggressiveness. We also found statistical suggestions that anger-related facial behaviors may serve as cues that overrepresent the expresser’s aggressiveness. Our findings suggest that facial behaviors associated with anger may have emerged to facilitate aggressive encounters.

Children's understanding and experience of mixed emotions: the roles of age, gender, and empathy

The present study examined the development of children's ability report understanding and experiencing allocentric mixed emotions, and explored the relation of gender and empathic ability to these skills. Participants (128 elementary school-aged children [63 boys, 65 girls]) were shown a movie clip with bittersweet themes to elicit mixed emotions. Findings from this study are consistent with prior research (Larsen, To, & Fireman, 2007), supporting a developmental progression in children's ability to both understand and report experiencing mixed emotions, with the two as distinct skills and children reporting understanding earlier than experiencing of emotions. Consistent with previous research, girls performed significantly better on the emotion experience task. Finally, results provided evidence that empathy partially mediates the relationship between age and reports of mixed emotion experience, but no evidence that empathy plays a role in mixed emotional understanding.

The influence of communicative relations on facial responses to pain: does it matter who is watching?

BACKGROUND

Facial responses to pain are believed to be an act of communication and, as such, are likely to be affected by the relationship between sender and receiver.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate this effect by examining the impact that variations in communicative relations (from being alone to being with an intimate other) have on the elements of the facial language used to communicate pain (types of facial responses), and on the degree of facial expressiveness.

METHODS

Facial responses of 126 healthy participants to phasic heat pain were assessed in three different social situations: alone, but aware of video recording; in the presence of an experimenter; and in the presence of an intimate other. Furthermore, pain catastrophizing and sex (of participant and experimenter) were considered as additional influences.

RESULTS

Whereas similar types of facial responses were elicited independent of the relationship between sender and observer, the degree of facial expressiveness varied significantly, with increased expressiveness occurring in the presence of the partner. Interestingly, being with an experimenter decreased facial expressiveness only in women. Pain catastrophizing and the sex of the experimenter exhibited no substantial influence on facial responses.

CONCLUSION

Variations in communicative relations had no effect on the elements of the facial pain language. The degree of facial expressiveness, however, was adapted to the relationship between sender and observer. Individuals suppressed their facial communication of pain toward unfamiliar persons, whereas they overtly displayed it in the presence of an intimate other. Furthermore, when confronted with an unfamiliar person, different situational demands appeared to apply for both sexes.

Evaluation of the relationship between upper incisor exposure and cephalometric variables in Korean young adults

Objective

The purpose of this study was to classify Korean young adults into 3 groups on the basis of upper incisor exposure rates (UIERs) and to compare the skeletal, dental, and soft tissue variables.

Methods

Samples were obtained from 127 students at the College of Dentistry, Wonkwang University in South Korea. Facial photographs of frontal posed smiles and lateral cephalograms of the subjects were taken. The subjects were divided into 3 groups on the basis of UIERs and 20 measurements were compared among the 3 groups. The correlations between the variables were determined.

Results

Male and female subjects showed significant differences in the group distribution. Male subjects showed higher frequencies of low smiles, and female subjects showed higher frequencies of high smiles. The vertical height of the anterior alveolar process of the maxilla directly correlated with the UIER. However, the UIER showed no significant correlation with the vertical height of the anterior basal bone or the inclination of the upper incisor axis. In female subjects, the upper central incisor clinical crown length showed an inverse correlation with the UIER. However, this variable showed no significant correlation with the UIER in male subjects.

Conclusions

The UIER was directly correlated with the levator muscle activity of the upper lip and inversely correlated with the upper lip thickness, yet there was no correlation between the UIER and upper lip length at rest.

Training approach-avoidance of smiling faces affects emotional vulnerability in socially anxious individuals

Previous research revealed an automatic behavioral bias in high socially anxious individuals (HSAs): although their explicit evaluations of smiling faces are positive, they show automatic avoidance of these faces. This is reflected by faster pushing than pulling of smiling faces in an Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT; Heuer et al., 2007). The current study addressed the causal role of this avoidance bias for social anxiety. To this end, we used the AAT to train HSAs, either to approach smiling faces or to avoid them. We examined whether such an AAT training could change HSAs' automatic avoidance tendencies, and if yes, whether AAT effects would generalize to a new approach task with new facial stimuli, and to mood and anxiety in a social threat situation (a video-recorded self-presentation). We found that HSAs trained to approach smiling faces did indeed approach female faces faster after the training than HSAs trained to avoid smiling faces. Moreover, approach-faces training reduced emotional vulnerability: it led to more positive mood and lower anxiety after the self-presentation than avoid-faces training. These results suggest that automatic approach-avoidance tendencies have a causal role in social anxiety, and that they can be modified by a simple computerized training. This may open new avenues in the therapy of social phobia.

Gender differences in emotion expression in children: a meta-analytic review

Emotion expression is an important feature of healthy child development that has been found to show gender differences. However, there has been no empirical review of the literature on gender and facial, vocal, and behavioral expressions of different types of emotions in children. The present study constitutes a comprehensive meta-analytic review of gender differences and moderators of differences in emotion expression from infancy through adolescence. We analyzed 555 effect sizes from 166 studies with a total of 21,709 participants. Significant but very small gender differences were found overall, with girls showing more positive emotions (g = -.08) and internalizing emotions (e.g., sadness, anxiety, sympathy; g = -.10) than boys, and boys showing more externalizing emotions (e.g., anger; g = .09) than girls. Notably, gender differences were moderated by age, interpersonal context, and task valence, underscoring the importance of contextual factors in gender differences. Gender differences in positive emotions were more pronounced with increasing age, with girls showing more positive emotions than boys in middle childhood (g = -.20) and adolescence (g = -.28). Boys showed more externalizing emotions than girls at toddler/preschool age (g = .17) and middle childhood (g = .13) and fewer externalizing emotions than girls in adolescence (g = -.27). Gender differences were less pronounced with parents and were more pronounced with unfamiliar adults (for positive emotions) and with peers/when alone (for externalizing emotions). Our findings of gender differences in emotion expression in specific contexts have important implications for gender differences in children's healthy and maladaptive development.

The psychophysiology of mixed emotional states

How to conceptualize mixed emotional states is a central issue in the field of affective science. Nondifferentiation, additive, and emergence accounts of mixed emotions make divergent predictions regarding physiological responses in mixed emotions. To test these predictions, 43 women watched film clips that elicited amusement, disgust, or mixed emotions while feeling self-report, facial electromyography, cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiratory measures were assessed. Simultaneous self-reports of amusement and disgust confirmed elicitation of a mixed emotional state. Physiologically, mixed emotions differed from pure amusement and pure disgust both in intensity and pattern. This suggests a distinct physiological response of the mixed emotional state, as predicted by the emergence account of mixed emotions. Implications for emotion theory and research are discussed.

Sex differences in the neural correlates of affective experience

People believe that women are more emotionally intense than men, but the scientific evidence is equivocal. In this study, we tested the novel hypothesis that men and women differ in the neural correlates of affective experience, rather than in the intensity of neural activity, with women being more internally (interoceptively) focused and men being more externally (visually) focused. Adult men (n = 17) and women (n = 17) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study while viewing affectively potent images and rating their moment-to-moment feelings of subjective arousal. We found that men and women do not differ overall in their intensity of moment-to-moment affective experiences when viewing evocative images, but instead, as predicted, women showed a greater association between the momentary arousal ratings and neural responses in the anterior insula cortex, which represents bodily sensations, whereas men showed stronger correlations between their momentary arousal ratings and neural responses in the visual cortex. Men also showed enhanced functional connectivity between the dorsal anterior insula cortex and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, which constitutes the circuitry involved with regulating shifts of attention to the world. These results demonstrate that the same affective experience is realized differently in different people, such that women's feelings are relatively more self-focused, whereas men's feelings are relatively more world-focused.

Gender differences in young children's temperament traits: comparisons across observational and parent-report methods

Evidence supporting the continuity between child temperament and adult personality traits is accumulating. One important indicator of continuity is the presence of reliable gender differences in traits across the lifespan. A substantial literature demonstrates gender differences on certain adult personality traits and recent meta-analytic work on child samples suggests similar gender differences for some broad and narrow domains of temperament. However, most existing studies of children rely only on parent-report measures. The present study investigated gender differences in temperament traits assessed by laboratory observation, maternal-report, and paternal-report measures. Across three independent samples, behavioral observations, maternal-report, and paternal-report measures of temperament were collected on 463 boys and 402 girls. Across all three methods, girls demonstrated higher positive affect and fear and lower activity level than boys. For laboratory measures, girls demonstrated higher levels of sociability and lower levels of overall negative emotionality (NE), sadness, anger and impulsivity than boys. However, girls demonstrated higher levels of overall NE and sadness than boys when measured by maternal reports. Finally, girls demonstrated lower levels of sociability based on paternal reports. Results are discussed in relation to past meta-analytic work and developmental implications of the findings.

Emotional mimicry in social context: the case of disgust and pride

A recent review on facial mimicry concludes that emotional mimicry is less ubiquitous than has been suggested, and only occurs in interactions that are potentially affiliative (see Hess and Fischer, in revision). We hypothesize that individuals do not mimic facial expressions that can be perceived as offensive, such as disgust, and mimic positive emotion displays, but only when the context is affiliative (i.e., with intimates). Second, we expect that in spontaneous interactions not mimicry, but empathic feelings with the other predict the accurateness of emotion recognition. Data were collected in a pseudo-experimental setting, during an event organized for subscribers of a large Dutch women's magazine. One woman (expresser) was exposed to two emotional stimuli (i.e., a vile smell, a compliment) in order to evoke disgust and pride respectively. Another woman (observer: intimate or stranger) was sitting opposite of her. We collected self-report measures on emotions and empathy, and coded facial expressions of disgust and smiling on the basis of FACS. The results show that participants do not mimic disgust. In contrast, smiles displayed after the vile smell and the compliment were mimicked, but only among intimates. We also found that self-reported empathy and not mimicry is related to the recognition of disgust. These findings are discussed in the light of a Social Contextual view on emotional mimicry.

A Unified Latent Curve, Latent State-Trait Analysis of the Developmental Trajectories and Correlates of Positive Orientation

Literature documents that the judgments people hold about themselves, their life, and their future are important ingredients of their psychological functioning and well-being and are commonly related to each other. In this article, results from a longitudinal study (N = 298, 45% males) are presented. Using an integrative Latent Curve, Latent State-Trait Model ( Tisak & Tisak, 2000 ), results corroborated (a) the impressive mean level and rank-order stability of positive orientation across a 4-year period, (b) the traitlike nature of positive orientation, and (c) the strong association of positive orientation with intrapersonal (i.e., quality of daily emotional experiences) and interpersonal (i.e., quality of friendships) adolescents' areas of functioning and on psychological resilience. These results attest to the utility of the new construct as a critical component of individuals' optimal well-functioning.

Spontaneous voice gender imitation abilities in adult speakers

Background

The frequency components of the human voice play a major role in signalling the gender of the speaker. A voice imitation study was conducted to investigate individuals' ability to make behavioural adjustments to fundamental frequency (F0), and formants (Fi) in order to manipulate their expression of voice gender.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Thirty-two native British-English adult speakers were asked to read out loud different types of text (words, sentence, passage) using their normal voice and then while sounding as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ as possible. Overall, the results show that both men and women raised their F0 and Fi when feminising their voice, and lowered their F0 and Fi when masculinising their voice.

Conclusions/Significance

These observations suggest that adult speakers are capable of spontaneous glottal and vocal tract length adjustments to express masculinity and femininity in their voice. These results point to a “gender code”, where speakers make a conventionalized use of the existing sex dimorphism to vary the expression of their gender and gender-related attributes.

The Rise and Fall of Job Analysis and the Future of Work Analysis

This review begins by contrasting the importance ascribed to the study of occupational requirements observed in the early twentieth-century beginnings of industrial-organizational psychology with the diminishing numbers of job analysis articles appearing in top journals in recent times. To highlight the many pending questions associated with the job-analytic needs of today's organizations that demand further inquiry, research on the three primary types of job analysis data, namely work activities, worker attributes, and work context, is reviewed. Research on competencies is also reviewed along with the goals of a potential research agenda for the emerging trend of competency modeling. The cross-fertilization of job analysis research with research from other domains such as the meaning of work, job design, job crafting, strategic change, and interactional psychology is proposed as a means of responding to the demands of today's organizations through new forms of work analysis.

A review on sex differences in processing emotional signals

Interest in sex-related differences in psychological functioning has again come to the foreground with new findings about their possible functional basis in the brain. Sex differences may be one way how evolution has capitalized on the capacity of homologous brain regions to process social information between men and women differently. This paper focuses specifically on the effects of emotional valence, sex of the observed and sex of the observer on regional brain activations. We also discuss the effects of and interactions between environment, hormones, genes and structural differences of the brain in the context of differential brain activity patterns between men and women following exposure to seen expressions of emotion and in this context we outline a number of methodological considerations for future research. Importantly, results show that although women are better at recognizing emotions and express themselves more easily, men show greater responses to threatening cues (dominant, violent or aggressive) and this may reflect different behavioral response tendencies between men and women as well as evolutionary effects. We conclude that sex differences must not be ignored in affective research and more specifically in affective neuroscience.

Psychometric properties of the Polish adaptation of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire—Revised (IBQ-R)

This paper presents the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire—Revised (IBQ-R). A group of 396 pairs of parents was studied, and a 3-factor structure of IBQ-R emerged with differences comparing to the original U.S. sample and a prior replication Russian sample. Analyses demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and high consistency rating between both parents' scores. Additionally, a comparison of the scores of IBQ-R scales between Polish and previously reported U.S. data was made, showing that Polish infants scored higher on negative affectivity scales and lower on surgency/extraversion and orientation/regulation scales.

Intensity of Smiling in Facebook Photos Predicts Future Life Satisfaction

Does the extent to which people are smiling in their Facebook photos predict future life satisfaction? In two longitudinal studies, the authors showed that smile intensity coded from a single Facebook profile photograph from male and female participants’ first semester at college was a robust predictor of self-reported life satisfaction 3.5 years later—as they were about to graduate from college. Controlling for first-semester life satisfaction, the authors also determined that smile intensity was a unique predictor of changes in life satisfaction over time. In addition, the authors demonstrated that the results were not due to extraversion or to sex differences in smile intensity. Finally, the authors showed that participants who exhibited a more intense smile in their Facebook photo had better social relationships during their first semester at college and that the association between smile intensity and life satisfaction 3.5 years later was partially mediated by first-semester social relationships satisfaction.