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

Sexual objectification versus empowerment: Examining the effects of sexualized women's facial expression on viewers' evaluations of social cognition and self-objectification

Objectification scholarship highlights how traditional media portrayals oftentimes direct attention toward women's bodies and away from their faces which communicate important social information. This study sought to investigate how thin-ideal, white women's facial expression potentially attenuates the negative effects of appearing in a sexually objectifying manner using validated imagery. In a 2 × 3 between-subjects experiment (N = 1001 U.S. adult women; Mage = 42.56, SDage = 12.72), portraits of women varied in their sexualization (non-sexualized vs. sexualized) and facial expression (neutral expression, low-intensity smiling, high-intensity smiling) to better understand how these factors influence dimensions of social cognition (competence, warmth, authenticity), self-promotional attributions, and viewers' own self-objectification. Results revealed that viewers rated sexualized (vs. non-sexualized) women lower in competence and authenticity, as well ascribed more self-promotional explanations for their behavior. Moreover, exposure to sexualized women heightened viewers' self-objectification, regardless of facial expression. Results also indicated that smiling intensity positively influenced viewers' ratings of social cognition. However, there is little evidence that smiling intensity overrides the negative effects of sexualization. Implications for the sexual objectification of women are discussed.

Association of intensity and dominance of CEOs' smiles with corporate performance

This study investigated whether the facial expressions of chief executive officers (CEOs) are associated with corporate performance. A photograph of the CEO or president of each company that appeared on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2018 was taken from the company's official website. The smile intensity and action unit activation in each face were calculated using a pre-trained machine learning algorithm, FACET. The results revealed a positive association between smile intensity and company profit, even when controlling for the company's geographic location (Western culture versus others) and the CEO's gender. Furthermore, when the type of smile was examined with the activation of each action unit, this significant positive association was identified in the dominant smile but not in the reward and affiliative smiles. Relationships among the leader's smile intensity, group strategy, and group performance are discussed.

Sex differences in facial expressions of pain: results from a combined sample

ABSTRACT

Facial expressions of pain play an important role in pain diagnostics and social interactions. Given the prominent impact of sex on various aspects of pain, it is not surprising that sex differences have also been explored regarding facial expressions of pain; however, with inconclusive findings. We aim to further investigate sex differences in facial expressions of pain by using a large, combined sample to maximize statistical power. Data from 7 previous studies of our group were merged, combining in total the data of 392 participants (male: 192, female: 200). All participants received phasic heat pain, with intensities being tailored to the individual pain threshold. Pain intensity ratings were assessed, and facial responses were manually analyzed using the Facial Action Coding. To compare facial and subjective responses between sexes, linear mixed-effects models were used, with study ID as a random effect. We found significant sex differences in facial responses, with females showing elevated facial responses to pain, although they received lower physical heat intensities (women had lower pain thresholds). In contrast, pain intensity ratings did not differ between sexes. Additionally, facial and subjective responses to pain were significantly associated across sexes, with females showing slightly stronger associations. Although variations in facial expressions of pain are very large even within each sex, our findings demonstrate that women facially communicate pain more intensively and with a better match to their subjective experience compared with men. This indicates that women might be better in using facial communication of pain in an intensity-discriminative manner.

Evaluating smile aesthetic satisfaction and related smile characteristics in dental students

Aim

This study aimed to assess the association between self-rated smile satisfaction and the smile dimensions among dental students.

Method

An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 216 Vietnamese dental students. A standardized photograph was taken of each student with their frontal social smiles to assess aesthetic dimensions. A single-session self-administered questionnaire containing five questions about smile aesthetic satisfaction related to various aspects was administered to all students. Differences in smile characteristics and satisfaction scores between the two genders were evaluated. The impact of smile characteristics on satisfaction scores was assessed using multiple linear regression models.

Results

Most dental students had a high smile line, parallel smile arcs, an upward upper lip curvature, a non-touching labiodental relationship, a dental midline that coincided with the midline of the face, and eight teeth displayed during smile. Most participants were satisfied with their smiles, and the self-rated satisfaction score was 67 out of 100. Self-perceived overall smile satisfaction was associated with the "smile arc", the "upper lip curvature", the "number of teeth displayed during smile", and the "dental midline". Female students had a statistically significant correlation between self-perception and smile characteristics, such as upper lip curvature, dental midline shift, and smile line.

Conclusions

The smile arc, upper lip curvature, and dental midline shift affected self-perceived satisfaction among dental students. Female students showed an association between the smile parameters and self-perceived satisfaction.

How Male and Female Literary Authors Write About Affect Across Cultures and Over Historical Periods

A wealth of literature suggests the existence of sex differences in how emotions are experienced, recognized, expressed, and regulated. However, to what extent these differences result from the put in place of stereotypes and social rules is still a matter of debate. Literature is an essential cultural institution, a transposition of the social life of people but also of their intimate affective experiences, which can serve to address questions of psychological relevance. Here, we created a large corpus of literary fiction enriched by authors' metadata to measure the extent to which culture influences how men and women write about emotion. Our results show that even though before the twenty-first century and across 116 countries women more than men have written about affect, starting from 2000, this difference has diminished substantially. Also, in the past, women's narratives were more positively laden and less arousing. While the difference in arousal is ubiquitous and still present nowadays, sex differences in valence vary as a function of culture and have dissolved in recent years. Altogether, these findings suggest that historic evolution is associated with men and women writing similarly about emotions and reveal a sizable impact of culture on the affective characteristics of the lexicon.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-023-00219-9.

Mid-Term Effects of Selective Denervation Surgery on Facial Symmetry in Patients with Nonflaccid Facial Paralysis: Intermediate Follow-Up of Rest and Smile Symmetry

Introduction: Although selective denervation (SD) improves clinician-graded, objective, and patient-reported smile symmetry, changes in resting symmetry have not been comprehensively studied. Objective: To assess mid-term changes in resting facial symmetry after SD, and to evaluate changes in perceived emotions in faces at rest and with smiling. Methods: Nonflaccid facial paralysis (NFFP) patients undergoing SD were studied from September 2021 to October 2022. Patient-reported, clinician-graded, and objective metrics of resting and smile symmetry were quantified. Results: Fourteen patients (median age 59.5 years; median paralysis duration 76.5 months; median follow-up 249.5 days (138-400); average of 5.7 branches sacrificed) underwent SD. Resting oral commissure (OC) symmetry (p = 0.028) and upper lip symmetry (p = 0.030) improved after surgery. In smiling faces, OC excursion (p = 0.004), smile angle (p = 0.016), and dental show (p = 0.012) improved. There were significant increases in perceived happiness at rest (p = 0.006) and with smile (p = 0.002). Clinician grading revealed improved nasolabial fold depth at rest (p = 0.087) after surgery, and patients reported improved facial function and happiness with the decision to undergo surgery. Conclusion: Intermediate follow-up suggests SD can improve objective resting and smile symmetry in patients with NFFP. After surgery, patients' faces convey more happiness in repose and with smile.

Knowledge and Attitude Toward Esthetic Dentistry and Smile Perception

INTRODUCTION

A smile is important in human communication and is increasingly valued in modern society. The perception of smile attractiveness is subjective and depends on many factors.

AIM

This study aimed to evaluate and compare knowledge and attitude related to esthetic dentistry in dental students versus dental interns, general dentists, and dental specialists, examine the self-perception of their smile, and identify parameters that influence smile perception.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University Dental Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Participants included dental students, interns, general practitioners, and specialists. They completed an electronic questionnaire covering demographics, knowledge about esthetic dentistry, attitudes toward smile perception, and previous dental treatments. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and chi-square tests.

RESULTS

A total of 275 individuals participated in our study. The study found that dental students' exposure and awareness of esthetic dentistry topics increased with academic progression. Gender, age, and marital status influenced self-perception and smile evaluation. More females perceived gender as an influencing factor in smile evaluation, while more males believed in the existence of an ideal smile. A substantial portion of the sample had undergone dental treatments, with no significant income-related disparities observed.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights differences in knowledge and attitudes among dental students and professionals. Dental education appears to impact students' exposure to esthetic dentistry concepts. Moreover, gender, age, and marital status influence self-perception and evaluation of others' smiles.

Quantifying the efficacy of an automated facial coding software using videos of parents

Introduction

This work explores the use of an automated facial coding software - FaceReader - as an alternative and/or complementary method to manual coding.

Methods

We used videos of parents (fathers, n = 36; mothers, n = 29) taken from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The videos-obtained during real-life parent-infant interactions in the home-were coded both manually (using an existing coding scheme) and by FaceReader. We established a correspondence between the manual and automated coding categories - namely Positive, Neutral, Negative, and Surprise - before contingency tables were employed to examine the software's detection rate and quantify the agreement between manual and automated coding. By employing binary logistic regression, we examined the predictive potential of FaceReader outputs in determining manually classified facial expressions. An interaction term was used to investigate the impact of gender on our models, seeking to estimate its influence on the predictive accuracy.

Results

We found that the automated facial detection rate was low (25.2% for fathers, 24.6% for mothers) compared to manual coding, and discuss some potential explanations for this (e.g., poor lighting and facial occlusion). Our logistic regression analyses found that Surprise and Positive expressions had strong predictive capabilities, whilst Negative expressions performed poorly. Mothers' faces were more important for predicting Positive and Neutral expressions, whilst fathers' faces were more important in predicting Negative and Surprise expressions.

Discussion

We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of future automated facial coding studies, and we emphasise the need to consider gender-specific influences in automated facial coding research.

Individuals with and without child maltreatment experiences are evaluated similarly and do not differ in facial affect display at zero- and first-acquaintance

BACKGROUND

Individuals with a history of child maltreatment (CM) are more often disliked, rejected and victimized compared to individuals without such experiences. However, contributing factors for these negative evaluations are so far unknown.

OBJECTIVE

Based on previous research on adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD), this preregistered study assessed whether negative evaluations of adults with CM experiences, in comparison to unexposed controls, are mediated by more negative and less positive facial affect display. Additionally, it was explored whether level of depression, severity of CM, social anxiety, social support, and rejection sensitivity have an influence on ratings.

METHODS

Forty adults with CM experiences (CM +) and 40 non-maltreated (CM-) adults were filmed for measurement of affect display and rated in likeability, trustworthiness, and cooperativeness by 100 independent raters after zero-acquaintance (no interaction) and 17 raters after first-acquaintance (short conversation).

RESULTS

The CM + and the CM- group were neither evaluated significantly different, nor showed significant differences in affect display. Contrasting previous research, higher levels of BPD symptoms predicted higher likeability ratings (p = .046), while complex post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms had no influence on ratings.

CONCLUSIONS

The non-significant effects could be attributed to an insufficient number of participants, as our sample size allowed us to detect effects with medium effect sizes (f² = .16 for evaluation; f² = .17 for affect display) with a power of .95. Moreover, aspects such as the presence of mental disorders (e.g., BPD or post-traumatic stress disorder), might have a stronger impact than CM per se. Future research should thus further explore conditions (e.g., presence of specific mental disorders) under which individuals with CM are affected by negative evaluations as well as factors that contribute to negative evaluations and problems in social relationships.

Beliefs in Regulating Negative Emotions and Vagally Mediated Heart Rate Variability: Does Sex Make a Difference?

OBJECTIVE

This ecological study explored the association between regulatory emotional self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative emotions (RESE-NE) and heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of parasympathetic modulation of the heart that has been positively associated with a better ability to flexibly adjust to a changing environment and regulate emotions.

METHOD

To test these associations, we used data from 161 adults working in relational professions (about 40% men; mean [standard deviation] age = 40.45 [14.17] years) whose HRV was assessed continuously for 24 hours.

RESULTS

Individuals high in RESE-NE showed increased HRV levels ( β = -0.05, p = .011). However, this effect was moderated by biological sex ( β = -0.18, p = .0001) such that RESE-NE positively and significantly predicted HRV for men ( β = 0.18, p < .0001) but not for women ( β = -0.001, p = .989).

CONCLUSIONS

All in all, our study provides initial empirical support for the theoretical expectation derived from social cognitive theory that RESE-NE is positively correlated with a physiological indicator of adaptability to the environmental demands. This was true only for men, likely because of sex differences in physiological stress reactivity and regulation.

Displaying pride: Variation by social context, ethnic heritage, and gender?

Pride is universal; however, the complexities linked to its social status functions and implications for social relationships suggest the possibility of variation in its display. Drawing from empirical evidence, this study examined whether displayed pride would vary by social context (i.e., whether the target was a competitor or a loved one), ethnic heritage (i.e., membership in individualistic or collectivistic cultural groups) and by gender. Young adults (N = 145) verbally described a pride experience to an imagined competitor, loved one, stranger or in a no-context control condition. Results showed similarity in displayed pride across the four contexts. However, some ethnic group and gender variations were observed. Latino/a/x Americans displayed less pride verbally than European Americans while women displayed more than men. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how people manage the display of pride and suggest that ethnic and gendered motivations for managing pride displays are relevant to a comprehensive understanding of interpersonal emotion regulation.

Connectome-based prediction of marital quality in husbands' processing of spousal interactions

Marital quality may decrease during the early years of marriage. Establishing models predicting individualized marital quality may help develop timely and effective interventions to maintain or improve marital quality. Given that marital interactions have an important impact on marital well-being cross-sectionally and prospectively, neural responses during marital interactions may provide insight into neural bases underlying marital well-being. The current study applies connectome-based predictive modeling, a recently developed machine-learning approach, to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from both partners of 25 early-stage Chinese couples to examine whether an individual's unique pattern of brain functional connectivity (FC) when responding to spousal interactive behaviors can reliably predict their own and their partners' marital quality after 13 months. Results revealed that husbands' FC involving multiple large networks, when responding to their spousal interactive behaviors, significantly predicted their own and their wives' marital quality, and this predictability showed gender specificity. Brain connectivity patterns responding to general emotional stimuli and during the resting state were not significantly predictive. This study demonstrates that husbands' differences in large-scale neural networks during marital interactions may contribute to their variability in marital quality and highlights gender-related differences. The findings lay a foundation for identifying reliable neuroimaging biomarkers for developing interventions for marital quality early in marriages.

Automated detection of smiles as discrete episodes

BACKGROUND

Patients seeking restorative and orthodontic treatment expect an improvement in their smiles and oral health-related quality of life. Nonetheless, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of dynamic smiles are yet to be understood.

OBJECTIVE

To develop, validate, and introduce open-access software for automated analysis of smiles in terms of their frequency, genuineness, duration, and intensity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A software script was developed using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and artificial intelligence to assess activations of (1) cheek raiser, a marker of smile genuineness; (2) lip corner puller, a marker of smile intensity; and (3) perioral lip muscles, a marker of lips apart. Thirty study participants were asked to view a series of amusing videos. A full-face video was recorded using a webcam. The onset and cessation of smile episodes were identified by two examiners trained with FACS coding. A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was then used to assess detection accuracy and optimise thresholding. The videos of participants were then analysed off-line to automatedly assess the features of smiles.

RESULTS

The area under the ROC curve for smile detection was 0.94, with a sensitivity of 82.9% and a specificity of 89.7%. The software correctly identified 90.0% of smile episodes. While watching the amusing videos, study participants smiled 1.6 (±0.8) times per minute.

CONCLUSIONS

Features of smiles such as frequency, duration, genuineness, and intensity can be automatedly assessed with an acceptable level of accuracy. The software can be used to investigate the impact of oral conditions and their rehabilitation on smiles.

Validity of social–emotional screening tool for newborns and infants: The effects of gender, ethnicity and age

The purpose of the present study was to test the measurement invariance of the baby pediatric symptom checklist (BPSC) across gender and age as a means to provide for valid comparisons in point estimates across groups. A secondary goal involved confirming the earlier identified factor structure and re-examining the presence of differentially item functioning in the BPSC across grouping variables. Participants were 601 children (322 boys and 279 girls) aged below 1 year (n = 294) and 1 year to 12 months (n = 307). Data were collected as part of the National Health Interview Survey in 2020. Results related to gender indicated satisfying all five levels of measurement and structural invariance. When testing measurement invariance across age groups, a few modifications were necessary. Specifically, partial metric invariance was satisfied after freeing slope estimates of items 1 and 2, partial scalar after freeing intercept terms of items 6 and 10, and partial residual invariance through freeing error terms of items 2 and 12. These non-invariant estimates, however, provide support for partial invariance and do not invalidate the comparison of latent means. The BPSC can be used for the valid assessment of social–emotional skills in infants up to the age of 18 months.

Nonverbal Synchrony in Technology-Mediated Interviews: A Cross-Cultural Study

Technology-mediated communication has changed the way we interact. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, this trend became even more pronounced. Media interviews are no exception. Yet, studies on nonverbal behaviors, especially nonverbal synchrony during such mediated settings, have been scarce. To fill the research gap, this study investigated synchronized patterns between interview hosts’ and guests’ facial emotional displays and upper body movement during mediated interviews recorded in the countries in Western (mainly the US, with the addition of the UK) and Eastern cultures (Japan). The interviews were categorized into information- or entertainment-driven interviews, depending on the social attributes of the guest. The time series of the valence in facial displays and upper body movement was automatedly measured using FaceReader and Motion Energy Analysis software, respectively, which was analyzed in terms of simultaneous movements, a primary component of synchrony. As predicted, facial synchrony was more prevalent in information-driven interviews, supporting the motivational and strategic account of synchrony. In addition, female-hosted interviews had a higher degree of synchrony, especially in information-driven interviews. Similar patterns were seen in movement synchrony, although not significant. This study is the first evidence of synchrony in technology-mediated interviews in which a host and a guest appear on split-screen to inform or entertain audiences. However, no cultural differences in synchrony were observed. Situational demands in front of the interactants and the goal-driven nature of communication seemed to play a more prominent role than cultural differences in nonverbal synchrony.

Heavier Lies Her Crown: Gendered Patterns of Leader Emotional Labor and Their Downstream Effects

Women use power in more prosocial ways than men and they also engage in more emotional labor (i.e., self-regulate their emotions to respond and attend to the needs and emotions of other people in a way that advances organizational goals). However, these two constructs have not been previously connected. We propose that gendered emotional labor practices and pressures result in gender differences in the prosocial use of power. We integrate the literature on emotional labor with research on the psychology of power to articulate three routes through which this happens. First, women may be more adept than men at the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes entailed in emotional labor practices—a skill that they can apply at all hierarchical levels. Second, given women’s stronger internal motivation to perform emotional labor, they construe power in a more interdependent manner than men, which promotes a more prosocial use of power. As a result, female powerholders tend to behave in more prosocial ways. Third, when they have power, women encounter stronger external motivation to engage in emotional labor, which effectively constrains powerful women’s behaviors in a way that fosters a more prosocial use of power. We discuss how, by promoting prosocial behavior among powerholders, emotional labor can be beneficial for subordinates and organizations (e.g., increase employee well-being and organizational trust), while simultaneously creating costs for individual powerholders, which may reduce women’s likelihood of actually attaining and retaining power by (a) making high-power roles less appealing, (b) guiding women toward less prestigious and (c) more precarious leadership roles, (d) draining powerful women’s time and resources without equitable rewards, and (e) making it difficult for women to legitimize their power in the eyes of subordinates (especially men). Thus, emotional labor practices can help explain the underrepresentation of women in top leadership positions.

Only as a last resort: Sociocultural differences between women and men explain women's heightened reaction to threat, not evolutionary principles

The target article proposed that women display greater self-protectiveness than men to major physical and social threats because such self-protective responses have higher fitness value for women than men. Rather than having evolutionary roots, we suggest the various physiological, behavioral, and emotional responses to social and physical threats exhibited more by women than men are instead rooted in sociocultural forces.

Spatio-Temporal Properties of Amused, Embarrassed, and Pained Smiles

Smiles are universal but nuanced facial expressions that are most frequently used in face-to-face communications, typically indicating amusement but sometimes conveying negative emotions such as embarrassment and pain. Although previous studies have suggested that spatial and temporal properties could differ among these various types of smiles, no study has thoroughly analyzed these properties. This study aimed to clarify the spatiotemporal properties of smiles conveying amusement, embarrassment, and pain using a spontaneous facial behavior database. The results regarding spatial patterns revealed that pained smiles showed less eye constriction and more overall facial tension than amused smiles; no spatial differences were identified between embarrassed and amused smiles. Regarding temporal properties, embarrassed and pained smiles remained in a state of higher facial tension than amused smiles. Moreover, embarrassed smiles showed a more gradual change from tension states to the smile state than amused smiles, and pained smiles had lower probabilities of staying in or transitioning to the smile state compared to amused smiles. By comparing the spatiotemporal properties of these three smile types, this study revealed that the probability of transitioning between discrete states could help distinguish amused, embarrassed, and pained smiles.

Subjective and objective difficulty of emotional facial expression perception from dynamic stimuli

This study aimed to discover predictors of subjective and objective difficulty in emotion perception from dynamic facial expressions. We used a multidimensional emotion perception framework, in which observers rated the perceived emotion along a number of dimensions instead of choosing from traditionally-used discrete categories of emotions. Data were collected online from 441 participants who rated facial expression stimuli in a novel paradigm designed to separately measure subjective (self-reported) and objective (deviation from the population consensus) difficulty. We targeted person-specific (sex and age of observers and actors) and stimulus-specific (valence and arousal values) predictors of those difficulty scores. Our findings suggest that increasing age of actors makes emotion perception more difficult for observers, and that perception difficulty is underestimated by men in comparison to women, and by younger and older adults in comparison to middle-aged adults. The results also yielded an increase in the objective difficulty measure for female observers and female actors. Stimulus-specific factors–valence and arousal–exhibited quadratic relationships with subjective and objective difficulties: Very positive and very negative stimuli were linked to reduced subjective and objective difficulty, whereas stimuli of very low and high arousal were linked to decreased subjective but increased objective difficulty. Exploratory analyses revealed low relevance of person-specific variables for the prediction of difficulty but highlighted the importance of valence in emotion perception, in line with functional accounts of emotions. Our findings highlight the need to complement traditional emotion recognition paradigms with novel designs, like the one presented here, to grasp the “big picture” of human emotion perception.

Gender differences in the physiological effects of emotional regulation

Previous research has established that emotional regulation impacts our health; emotional expression is associated with a host of psychological and physiological benefits whereas emotional suppression has negative health consequences. Given that emotional-display rules restrict the range of emotion that men feel comfortable expressing, we hypothesized that gender might moderate the health outcomes associated with emotional regulation strategies. In a laboratory experiment, we instructed participants to either suppress or express their feelings in an interview with a researcher about a film they had watched. These participants provided saliva samples at four different points during the procedure for the later determination of cortisol. A Mixed Model ANOVA revealed that participant gender moderated the effect of emotional regulation strategy on cortisol. Contrary to the health consequences typically associated with emotional regulation strategies, men benefited more from emotional suppression than they did from emotional expression. These findings have important implications for future research and clinical work.

Smile Reproducibility and Its Relationship to Self-Perceived Smile Attractiveness

The reproducibility of facial expressions has been previously explored, however, there is no detailed information regarding the reproducibility of lip morphology forming a social smile. In this study, we recruited 93 young adults, aged 21−35 years old, who agreed to participate in two consecutive study visits four weeks apart. On each visit, they were asked to perform a social smile, which was captured on a 3D facial image acquired using the 3dMD camera system. Assessments of self-perceived smile attractiveness were also performed using a VAS scale. Lip morphology, including smile shape, was described using 62 landmarks and semi-landmarks. A Procrustes superimposition of each set of smiling configurations (first and second visit) was performed and the Euclidean distance between each landmark set was calculated. A linear regression model was used to test the association between smile consistency and self-perceived smile attractiveness. The results show that the average landmark distance between sessions did not exceed 1.5 mm, indicating high repeatability, and that females presented approximately 15% higher smile consistecy than males (p < 0.05). There was no statistically significant association between smile consistency and self-perceived smile attractiveness (η2 = 0.015; p = 0.252), when controlling for the effect of sex and age.

Gender differences in pleasure: the mediating roles of cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity

BACKGROUND

Gender differences have been found to be associated with individuals' pleasure. Cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity might play an important role between gender differences and pleasure. This current study is to explore the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity in the relationship between gender differences and pleasure.

METHOD

In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 1107 full-time university students from five colleges in Tianjin, Chinese mainland was investigated by questionnaire. All participants completed the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPs), the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI), and the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ).

RESULTS

The results of independent T-test suggested that females reported better emotional expressivity, anticipatory pleasure and consummatory pleasure than males, whereas males had better cognitive flexibility than females. Using bootstrapping approach revealed that the partially mediation effects of cognitive flexibility on gender differences in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, and that of emotional expressivity on gender differences in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Results of this present study stated that cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity play a partial mediating role in explaining gender differences in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure.

CONCLUSION

Females had higher anticipatory and consummatory pleasure because they tend to use emotional regulation strategy to express their emotion.

How and Why Could Smiling Influence Physical Health? A Conceptual Review

Smiling has been a topic of interest to psychologists for decades, with a myriad of studies tying this behavior to well-being. Despite this, we know surprisingly little about the nature of the connections between smiling and physical health. We review the literature connecting both naturally occurring smiles and experimentally manipulated smiles to physical health and health-relevant outcomes. This work is discussed in the context of existing affect and health-relevant theoretical models that help explain the connection between smiling and physical health including the facial feedback hypothesis, the undoing hypothesis, the generalized unsafety theory of stress, and polyvagal theory. We also describe a number of plausible pathways, some new and relatively untested, through which smiling may influence physical health such as trait or state positive affect, social relationships, stress buffering, and the oculocardiac reflex. Finally, we provide a discussion of possible future directions, including the importance of cultural variation and replication. Although this field is still in its infancy, the findings from both naturally occurring smile studies and experimentally manipulated smile studies consistently suggest that smiling may have a number of health-relevant benefits including beneficially impacting our physiology during acute stress, improved stress recovery, and reduced illness over time.

Peer audience effects on children's vocal masculinity and femininity

Existing evidence suggests that children from around the age of 8 years strategically alter their public image in accordance with known values and preferences of peers, through the self-descriptive information they convey. However, an important but neglected aspect of this 'self-presentation' is the medium through which such information is communicated: the voice itself. The present study explored peer audience effects on children's vocal productions. Fifty-six children (26 females, aged 8-10 years) were presented with vignettes where a fictional child, matched to the participant's age and sex, is trying to make friends with a group of same-sex peers with stereotypically masculine or feminine interests (rugby and ballet, respectively). Participants were asked to impersonate the child in that situation and, as the child, to read out loud masculine, feminine and gender-neutral self-descriptive statements to these hypothetical audiences. They also had to decide which of those self-descriptive statements would be most helpful for making friends. In line with previous research, boys and girls preferentially selected masculine or feminine self-descriptive statements depending on the audience interests. Crucially, acoustic analyses of fundamental frequency and formant frequency spacing revealed that children also spontaneously altered their vocal productions: they feminized their voices when speaking to members of the ballet club, while they masculinized their voices when speaking to members of the rugby club. Both sexes also feminized their voices when uttering feminine sentences, compared to when uttering masculine and gender-neutral sentences. Implications for the hitherto neglected role of acoustic qualities of children's vocal behaviour in peer interactions are discussed. This article is part of the theme issue 'Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)'.

Stereotypical Processing of Emotional Faces: Perceptual and Decisional Components

People tend to associate anger with male faces and happiness or surprise with female faces. This angry-men-happy-women bias has been ascribed to either top-down (e.g., well-learned stereotypes) or bottom-up (e.g., shared morphological cues) processes. The dissociation between these two theoretical alternatives has proved challenging. The current effort addresses this challenge by harnessing two complementary metatheoretical approaches to dimensional interaction: Garner's logic of inferring informational structure and General Recognition Theory—a multidimensional extension of signal detection theory. Conjoint application of these two rigorous methodologies afforded us to: (a) uncover the internal representations that generate the angry-men-happy-women phenomenon, (b) disentangle varieties of perceptual (bottom-up) and decisional (top-down) sources of interaction, and (c) relate operational and theoretical meanings of dimensional independence. The results show that the dimensional interaction between emotion and gender is generated by varieties of perceptual and decisional biases. These outcomes document the involvement of both bottom-up (e.g., shared morphological structures) and top-down (stereotypes) factors in social perception.

Self-Protection as an Adaptive Female Strategy

Many male traits are well explained by sexual selection theory as adaptations to mating competition and mate choice, whereas no unifying theory explains traits expressed more in females. Anne Campbell's "staying alive" theory proposed that human females produce stronger self-protective reactions than males to aggressive threats because self-protection tends to have higher fitness value for females than males. We examined whether Campbell's theory has more general applicability by considering whether human females respond with greater self-protectiveness than males to other threats beyond aggression. We searched the literature for physiological, behavioral, and emotional responses to major physical and social threats, and found consistent support for females' responding with greater self-protectiveness than males. Females mount stronger immune responses to many pathogens; experience a lower threshold to detect, and lesser tolerance of, pain; awaken more frequently at night; express greater concern about physically dangerous stimuli; exert more effort to avoid social conflicts; exhibit a personality style more focused on life's dangers; react to threats with greater fear, disgust and sadness; and develop more threat-based clinical conditions than males. Our findings suggest that in relation to threat human females have relatively heightened protective reactions compared to males. The pervasiveness of this result across multiple domains suggests that general mechanisms might exist underlying females' unique adaptations. An understanding of such processes would enhance knowledge of female health and well-being.

Blinded by our sight: Understanding the prominence of visual information in judgments of competence and performance

Visual information often quickly dominates people's judgments of others' competence and performance, including in the selection of leaders and decision makers. Reviewing recent research on static and dynamic visual cues, we discuss how people extrapolate judgments of competence and performance from visual information. We highlight how these two streams of research contribute to understanding performance perceptions and offer future avenues for research integrating the consideration of both static and dynamic visual cues.

Attentional Biases Towards Body Expressions of Pain in Men and Women

This study investigated whether there are gender differences in attention to bodily expressions of pain and core emotions. Three experiments are reported using the attentional dot probe task. Images of men and women displaying bodily expressions, including pain, were presented. The task was used to determine whether participants' attention was drawn towards or away from target expressions. Inconsistent evidence was found for an attentional bias towards body expressions, including pain. While biases were affected by gender, patterns varied across the Experiments. Experiment 1, which had a presentation duration of 500 ms, found a relative bias towards the location of male body expressions compared to female expressions. Experiments 2 and 3 varied stimulus exposure times by including both shorter and longer duration conditions (e.g., 100 vs. 500 vs. 1250 ms). In these experiments, a bias towards pain was confirmed. Gender differences were also found, especially in the longer presentation conditions. Expressive body postures captured the attention of women for longer compared to men. These results are discussed in light of their implications for why there are gender differences in attention to pain, and what impact this has on pain behaviour. PERSPECTIVE: We show that men and women might differ in how they direct their attention towards bodily expressions, including pain. These results have relevance to understanding how carers might attend to the pain of others, as well as highlighting the wider role that social-contextual factors have in pain.

Maximizing the Smile Symmetry in Facial Paralysis Reconstruction: An Algorithm Based on Twenty Years' Experience

Over the last two decades, the senior author (B.H.) has had an extensive experience with facial paralysis reconstruction. During this period, the techniques have evolved substantially based on the experience and after observing and analyzing the surgical outcomes. The purpose of this article is to relay the lessons learned from the 20 years' experience and suggest an algorithm. In this retrospective study, we have included 343 cases of facial paralysis cases. Complete facial paralysis cases were 285 and 58 were incomplete facial paralyses, both requiring surgical procedures. Complete facial paralyses were divided in to short term (n = 83) and long term (n = 202). In total, 58% of the patients were women and 42% were men. The age range was 6 to 82 years. The techniques employed were direct suture, nerve grafts, cross-facial nerve grafts (CFNGs), masseteric-to-facial nerve transference, hypoglossal-to-facial nerve transference, free muscle transplants, and lengthening temporal myoplasty to achieve the best symmetry after reanimation of unilateral, bilateral, complete, and incomplete facial paralysis. The type of paralysis, objective measurements, the personal patient's smile, and the gender are key concepts to be considered before scheduling a dynamic facial paralysis reconstruction. For unilateral facial paralysis, the time of onset, the type of paralysis, the patient's comorbidities, and the healthy side status are some of the determining factors when selecting the correct technique. The preferred techniques for unilateral facial paralysis are direct repair, CFNG, masseteric-to-facial transposition, and free gracilis transfer. For incomplete facial paralysis, the masseteric-to-facial nerve transference is preferred. In bilateral facial paralysis, bilateral free gracilis transfer is performed in two stages using the nerve of the masseter muscle as the source of innervation. The authors provide an algorithm which simplifies facial paralysis reconstruction to achieve the greatest facial symmetry while thinking about the potential comorbidities and developing spontaneity smile according to the gender of the patient.

Typical emotional expression in children’s drawings of the human face

This study was aimed at verifying if children introduce emotional expressions in their drawings of human faces, and if a preferential expression exists; we also wanted to verify if children’s pictorial choices change with increasing age. To this end we examined the human figure drawings made by 160 boys and 160 girls, equally divided in 4 age groups: 6–7; 8–9; 10–11; 12–13 years; mean ages (SD in parentheses) were: 83,30 (6,54); 106,14 (7,16) 130,49 (8,26); 155,40 (6,66). Drawings were collected with the Draw-a-Man test instructions, i.e. without mentioning an emotional characterization. In the light of data from previous studies of emotion drawing on request, and the literature about preferred emotional expressions, we expected that an emotion would be portrayed even by the younger participants, and that the preferred emotion would be happiness. We also expected that with the improving ability to keep into account both mouth and eyes appearance, other expressions would be found besides the smiling face. Data were submitted to non-parametric tests to compare the frequencies of expressions (absolute and by age) and the frequencies of visual cues (absolute and by age and expressions). The results confirmed that only a small number of faces were expressionless, and that the most frequent emotion was happiness. However, with increasing age this representation gave way to a variety of basic emotions (sadness, fear, anger, surprise), whose representation may depend from the ability to modify the shapes of both eyes and mouth and changing communicative aims of the child.

Demographic effects on facial emotion expression: an interdisciplinary investigation of the facial action units of happiness

Understanding demographic difference in facial expression of happiness has crucial implications on social communication. However, prior research on facial emotion expression has mostly focused on the effect of a single demographic factor (typically gender, race, or age), and is limited by the small image dataset collected in laboratory settings. First, we used 30,000 (4800 after pre-processing) real-world facial images from Flickr, to analyze the facial expression of happiness as indicated by the intensity level of two distinctive facial action units, the Cheek Raiser (AU6) and the Lip Corner Puller (AU12), obtained automatically via a deep learning algorithm that we developed, after training on 75,000 images. Second, we conducted a statistical analysis on the intensity level of happiness, with both the main effect and the interaction effect of three core demographic factors on AU12 and AU6. Our results show that females generally display a higher AU12 intensity than males. African Americans tend to exhibit a higher AU6 and AU12 intensity, when compared with Caucasians and Asians. The older age groups, especially the 40–69-year-old, generally display a stronger AU12 intensity than the 0–3-year-old group. Our interdisciplinary study provides a better generalization and a deeper understanding on how different gender, race and age groups express the emotion of happiness differently.

Social Communication and Structural Language of Girls With High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

Purpose The purpose of this study was to characterize social communication and structural language of school-age girls with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD) compared to a matched group of girls who are typically developing (TD). Method Participants were 37 girls between 7;5 and 15;2 (years;months)-18 HF-ASD and 19 TD. Children completed the Test of Pragmatic Language-Second Edition (TOPL-2) and Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fifth Edition. Parents completed the Children's Communication Checklist-2 United States Edition (CCC-2) and Receptive and Expressive Communication subdomains of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Second Edition. Results In the area of social communication, girls with HF-ASD earned significantly lower scores and were more often classified as having an impairment on the TOPL-2 and the CCC-2. However, 28% and 33% earned average scores on the TOPL-2 and the CCC-2, respectively. In the area of structural language, no significant differences were found between groups on Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fifth Edition indexes. In contrast, girls with HF-ASD earned significantly lower scores and were more often classified as having an impairment on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Second Edition. Sixty-one percent and 83% scored below average on the Receptive and Expressive Communication subdomains, respectively. Conclusions It has been argued that girls with HF-ASD, when compared to boys with HF-ASD, may have advantages for social communication and structural language that mask their impairments. However, when compared to girls who are TD, girls with HF-ASD demonstrated impaired social communication and structural language. Clinicians should include and carefully examine multiple sources of information when assessing girls with HF-ASD.

Emotion and Gender Typicality Cue Sexual Orientation Differently in Women and Men

Heterosexual individuals tend to look and act more typical for their gender compared to gay and lesbian individuals, and people use this information to infer sexual orientation. Consistent with stereotypes associating happy expressions with femininity, previous work found that gay men displayed more happiness than straight men-a difference that perceivers used, independent of gender typicality, to judge sexual orientation. Here, we extended this to judgments of women's sexual orientation. Like the gender-inversion stereotypes applied to men, participants perceived women's faces manipulated to look angry as more likely to be lesbians; however, emotional expressions largely did not distinguish the faces of actual lesbian and straight women. Compared to men's faces, women's faces varied less in their emotional expression (appearing invariably positive) but varied more in gender typicality. These differences align with gender role expectations requiring the expression of positive emotion by women and prohibiting the expression of femininity by men. More important, greater variance within gender typicality and emotion facilitates their respective utility for distinguishing sexual orientation from facial appearance. These findings thus provide the first evidence for contrasting cues to women's and men's sexual orientation and suggest that gender norms may uniquely shape how men and women reveal their sexual orientation.

GIS-Based Emotional Computing: A Review of Quantitative Approaches to Measure the Emotion Layer of Human–Environment Relationships

In recent years, with the growing accessibility of abundant contextual emotion information, which is benefited by the numerous georeferenced user-generated content and the maturity of artificial intelligence (AI)-based emotional computing technics, the emotion layer of human–environment relationship is proposed for enriching traditional methods of various related disciplines such as urban planning. This paper proposes the geographic information system (GIS)-based emotional computing concept, which is a novel framework for applying GIS methods to collective human emotion. The methodology presented in this paper consists of three key steps: (1) collecting georeferenced data containing emotion and environment information such as social media and official sites, (2) detecting emotions using AI-based emotional computing technics such as natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision (CV), and (3) visualizing and analyzing the spatiotemporal patterns with GIS tools. This methodology is a great synergy of multidisciplinary cutting-edge techniques, such as GIScience, sociology, and computer science. Moreover, it can effectively and deeply explore the connection between people and their surroundings with the help of GIS methods. Generally, the framework provides a standard workflow to calculate and analyze the new information layer for researchers, in which a measured human-centric perspective onto the environment is possible.

Tracking Fluctuations in Psychological States using Social Media Language: A Case Study of Weekly Emotion

Personality psychologists are increasingly documenting dynamic, within–person processes. Big data methodologies can augment this endeavour by allowing for the collection of naturalistic and personality–relevant digital traces from online environments. Whereas big data methods have primarily been used to catalogue static personality dimensions, here we present a case study in how they can be used to track dynamic fluctuations in psychological states. We apply a text–based, machine learning prediction model to Facebook status updates to compute weekly trajectories of emotional valence and arousal. We train this model on 2895 human–annotated Facebook statuses and apply the resulting model to 303 575 Facebook statuses posted by 640 US Facebook users who had previously self–reported their Big Five traits, yielding an average of 28 weekly estimates per user. We examine the correlations between model–predicted emotion and self–reported personality, providing a test of the robustness of these links when using weekly aggregated data, rather than momentary data as in prior work. We further present dynamic visualizations of weekly valence and arousal for every user, while making the final data set of 17 937 weeks openly available. We discuss the strengths and drawbacks of this method in the context of personality psychology's evolution into a dynamic science. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

Dynamic Advances in Emotion Processing: Differential Attention towards the Critical Features of Dynamic Emotional Expressions in 7-Month-Old Infants

Infants' visual processing of emotion undergoes significant development across the first year of life, yet our knowledge regarding the mechanisms underlying these advances is limited. Additionally, infant emotion processing is commonly examined using static faces, which do not accurately depict real-world emotional displays. The goal of this study was to characterize 7-month-olds' visual scanning strategies when passively viewing dynamic emotional expressions to examine whether infants modify their scanning patterns depending on the emotion. Eye-tracking measures revealed differential attention towards the critical features (eyes, mouth) of expressions. The eyes captured the greatest attention for angry and neutral faces, and the mouth captured the greatest attention for happy faces. A time-course analysis further elucidated at what point during the trial differential scanning patterns emerged. The current results suggest that 7-month-olds are sensitive to the critical features of emotional expressions and scan them differently depending on the emotion. The scanning patterns presented in this study may serve as a link to understanding how infants begin to differentiate between expressions in the context of emotion recognition.

Does laughing have a stress-buffering effect in daily life? An intensive longitudinal study

Positive affect is associated with alleviating mental and physiological stress responses. As laughter is a common physiological operationalization of positive affect, we investigated whether the effects of experiencing a stressful event on stress symptoms is lessened by frequency and intensity of daily laughter. Using an intensive longitudinal design, we ambulatory assessed the self-reported experience of stressful events, stress symptoms and the frequency as well as the intensity of laughter in university students' daily lives. Our hierarchical ecological momentary assessment data were analyzed with multilevel models. The results support the stress-buffering model of positive affect: We found that the frequency of laughter attenuated the association between stressful events and subsequent stress symptoms. The level of intensity of laughter, however, was found to have no significant effect. Future studies should use additional psychophysiological indicators of stress and straighten out the differential contributions of frequency and intensity of daily laughter.

Children Expressing Mixed Emotion in a Nonsocial Context

Efforts to demonstrate children's ability to report experiencing mixed emotions have typically used an allocentric approach, asking children to report on emotions of other individuals in response to stories or movie clips demonstrating social themes. In contrast, literature examining children's personal experiencing and understanding of their own mixed emotions, typified as an egocentric approach, in nonsocial situations remains underdeveloped. The current study examined the development of children's reported understanding and experience of mixed emotions egocentrically. By examining a nonsocial context, this investigation extends existing gender- and age-related research on expressing egocentric mixed emotion. Using a computerized game with a disappointing wins paradigm, egocentric mixed emotional experience was elicited in 142 children (80 boys, 62 girls) aged 6 to 12 years. Results revealed that age, but not gender, was a statistically significant predictor of expressing egocentric mixed emotion experience and understanding. When studying mixed emotion development in a nonsocial context, gender did not contribute to differences in child reports. A significant positive relationship between egocentric mixed emotion experiencing and understanding also emerged. These findings contribute to our understanding of children's emotion development and offer future directions for examining the broad domain of nonsocial contexts in youth expression of mixed emotions.

Genuine Smiles by Patients During Marital Interactions are Associated with Better Caregiver Mental Health

OBJECTIVE

Providing care for a spouse with dementia is associated with an increased risk for poor mental health. To determine whether this vulnerability in caregivers is related to the expression of positive emotion, we examined 57 patients with Alzheimer's disease and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and their spouses as they discussed a marital conflict.

METHOD

Facial behavior during the discussion was objectively coded to identify Duchenne (i.e., genuine) smiles and non-Duchenne (i.e., polite) smiles. Caregiver mental health was measured using the Medical Outcomes Survey.

RESULTS

Greater expression of Duchenne smiles by patients was associated with better caregiver mental health, even when accounting for covariates (i.e., diagnosis, patient cognitive functioning, and caregiver marital satisfaction). Greater expression of non-Duchenne smiles by patients was associated with worse caregiver health, but only when covariates were entered in the model. Expression of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles by caregivers was not associated with caregiver mental health.

DISCUSSION

Patients' expression of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles may reveal important aspects of the emotional quality of the patient-caregiver relationship that influence caregiver burden and mental health.

Personality Disorders and Personality Profiles in a Sample of Transgender Individuals Requesting Gender-Affirming Treatments

The study aims to explore the personality patterns of a group of transgender individuals who accessed an Italian gender clinic to undergo gender affirming treatments, by evaluating both dimensional personality domains proposed by the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders and categorical DSM-IV personality disorder (PD) diagnoses. Eighty-seven participants (40 transgender women and 47 transgender men) completed the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II personality disorders. Scores obtained were compared to those of the normative samples of cisgender women and men. Results indicated that transgender women scored lower than cisgender women on two main domains (Negative Affectivity and Psychoticism) and on seven facets. As for transgender men, lower scores than cisgender men were found on Antagonism and on five facets. Transgender men scored higher than cisgender men on Depressivity. Nearly 50% of participants showed at least one PD diagnosis, with no gender differences in prevalence. Borderline PD was the most frequent diagnosis in the overall sample. Self-report measures provide a less maladaptive profile of personality functioning than the clinician-based categorical assessment. Results are interpreted in the light of the Minority Stress Model and support the need for a multi-method assessment of personality in medicalized transgender people.

The relationship between subjective happiness and sleep problems in Japanese adolescents

OBJECTIVES

Low sleep quality in adolescents is an important public health concern, as it relates to both their current and future physical and mental health. Furthermore, subjective happiness is also often regarded as a major life goal. Although Japan is an economically powerful country, the reported levels of subjective happiness among Japanese adolescents is low. Thus, this study aims to examine the relationship between subjective happiness and sleep problems in Japanese adolescents.

METHODS

We conducted a nationally representative cross-sectional study of adolescents enrolled in junior and senior high schools in Japan. We used a questionnaire to determine the prevalence of sleep problems (eg, insomnia, short sleep duration (SSD) and poor sleep quality) and to evaluate the participants' reported levels of subjective happiness. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine the associations between subjective happiness and sleep problems. Adjusted variables were basic demographic characteristics (eg, gender and school grade), lifestyle behaviors, and mental health status.

RESULTS

Data from 64,329 students were analyzed (age range 12-18 years, mean age 15.7 years, 53.9% male). The results indicated that reported levels of subjective happiness were strongly associated with the prevalence of sleep problems. Linear relationships can be observed between sleep problems and subjective happiness scores. The multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that dose-response association of subjective happiness score was observed with all three sleep problems.

CONCLUSIONS

Due to these findings, we recommend that policy makers and school officials educate adolescents on the importance of both subjective happiness and good sleep hygiene.

Real Men Don't Cry: Skill Expressing Discrete Emotions Differentially Predicts Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Men and Women

BACKGROUND

Expressing emotions effectively is central to social functioning and has links to health and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Previous work has linked the ability to smile to lower CVD risk in men but has not studied other expressions or considered the context of these skills.

PURPOSE

To test whether the ability to express fear, anger, sadness, happiness, and disgust cross-sectionally predict CVD risk in both genders and whether links are moderated by the ability to decode others' emotional signals.

METHODS

A community sample of 125 men and women (30-75 years) provided trait emotion data before a laboratory visit where blood was drawn and performance-based assessments of the ability to signal and decode emotions were administered. Expressive accuracy was scored using FaceReader software. Projected CVD risk was calculated using Framingham, a New Zealand (NZ) specific, and Atherosclerosis CVD (ASCVD) risk algorithms.

RESULTS

Accuracy expressing happiness predicted lower projected risk, whereas greater accuracy expressing fear and sadness predicted higher risk. Gender frequently moderated these links; greater accuracy expressing happiness predicted lower risk in men but not women. Conversely, greater accuracy expressing fear predicted higher risk in men, whereas greater accuracy expressing sadness predicted lower risk in women but, again, higher risk in men. The ability to accurately decode others' emotions moderated some links.

CONCLUSIONS

The ability to signal emotion has complex links to health parameters. The ability to flexibly regulate expressions in accordance with gender norms may be one useful way of thinking about adaptive expressive regulation.

Spontaneous helping behavior of autistic and non-autistic (Pre-)adolescents: A matter of motivation?

Young autistic people have a range of social difficulties, but it is not yet clear how these difficulties can be explained. In addition, emerging research is suggesting that autistic girls may differ from boys in terms of their social behaviors, but yet unknown is if they differ in terms of their pro-social behavior, such as helping. The present study investigated spontaneous helping behavior using an in vivo paradigm and related this to participants' levels of social motivation (based on parent reports). Participants were 233 autistic and non-autistic (pre-)adolescents (M = 12.46 years, SD = 15.54 months). Our results demonstrated that autistic girls and boys have lower levels of social motivation compared to their non-autistic peers, but social motivation was unrelated to helping behavior in both groups. Furthermore, when the experimenter needed help, the autistic boys and girls looked and smiled to the same extent as their peers of the same gender, but they actually helped significantly less than their non-autistic peers. However, most autistic youngsters did help, highlighting the great individual differences in autistic individuals. We discuss the possibility that lower levels of helping behavior are due to difficulty initiating action in a social context, rather than lower social motivation. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1796-1804. © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: This study examined the helping behavior of autistic boys and girls (aged 9-16). Many autistic young people did help, but compared to non-autistic individuals, autistic people did not help as much. This study also showed that when people did/did not help, it was not related to their interest in social relationships. It is important to teach young autistic people when and how to help others, to support them making friends.

Contrasting Experimentally Device-Manipulated and Device-Free Smiles

Researchers in psychology have long been interested in not only studying smiles, but in examining the downstream effects of experimentally manipulated smiles. To experimentally manipulate smiles unobtrusively, participants typically hold devices (e.g., pens or chopsticks) in their mouths in a manner that activates the muscles involved in smiling. Surprisingly, despite decades of research using these methods, no study has tested to what degree these methods activate the same muscles as more natural, device-free smiles. Our study fills this gap in the literature by contrasting the magnitude of muscle activation in device-free smiles against the popular chopstick/pen manipulation. We also contrast these methods against the Smile Stick, a new device specifically designed to manipulate smiles in a comfortable and hygienic fashion. One hundred fifty-nine participants each participated in three facial expression manipulations that were held for 1 min: smile manipulation via Smile Stick, smile manipulation via chopsticks, and device-free smile. Facial electromyography was used to measure the intensity of the activation of the two main types of muscles involved in genuine, Duchenne smiling: the orbicularis oculi (a muscle group around the eyes) and the zygomaticus major (a muscle group in the cheeks). Furthermore, following each manipulation, participants rated their experience of the manipulation (i.e., comfort, fatigue, and difficulty), experienced affect (positive and negative), and levels of arousal. Results indicated that the Smile Stick and chopsticks performed equally across all measurements. Device-free smiles were rated as most comfortable but also the most fatiguing, and procured the greatest levels of positive affect and lowest levels of negative affect. Furthermore, device-free smiles resulted in significantly higher levels of both zygomaticus major (by ∼40%) and orbicularis oculi (by ∼15%) muscle activation than either the Smile Stick or chopsticks. The two devices were not different from each other in muscle activation. This study reveals that while device-free smiling procures the greatest changes in muscle activation and affect change, smiling muscle groups are activated by device manipulations, and expected changes in affect do occur, albeit to a lesser degree than device-free smiling. It also indicates that the Smile Stick is an acceptable and comparable alternative to disposable chopsticks.