Deng X, Hosseini S, Miyake Y, Nozawa T. Unravelling the relation between altruistic cooperativeness trait, smiles, and cooperation: a mediation analysis.
Front Psychol 2023;
14:1227266. [PMID:
37674753 PMCID:
PMC10477460 DOI:
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1227266]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction
Human cooperativeness is an important personality trait. However, the mechanism through which people cooperate remains unclear. Previous research suggests that one of the proposed functions of smiling is to advertise altruistic dispositions, leading to successful cooperation. In particular, studies have reported that Duchenne smiles are honest signals of cooperative intent because they are not easy to produce voluntarily. This study aimed to examine the predictive relationships among altruistic cooperativeness traits, Duchenne smiles, and cooperative behavior.
Methods
A total of 90 people were randomly assigned to dyads and filmed while they participated in a ten-minute, unstructured conversation followed by a prisoner's dilemma game to measure their cooperative behaviors. Their smiles during conversations were classified as Duchenne or non-Duchenne. Participants' altruistic dispositions were measured before the conversation began using an anonymous prisoner's dilemma game.
Results
The results of our linear regression analyses support previous findings that individual's Duchenne smiles and their own cooperative behavior are positively correlated. However, when we controlled for altruistic cooperativeness, Duchenne smiles no longer correlated with cooperative behavior. The results of the mediation analyses showed that Duchenne smiles and smile synchrony did not mediate the predictive relationship between altruistic cooperativeness and cooperative behavior.
Discussion
Our results suggest that human cooperative behavior may be predetermined by altruistic cooperativeness. This calls for the reconsideration of the Duchenne smile as an underlying behavioral mechanism that is effective for signaling altruistic cooperative intent.
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