The role of emotion-related individual differences in enjoyment and masking smile judgment

BACKGROUND

While some research indicates that individuals can accurately judge smile authenticity of enjoyment and masking smile expressions, other research suggest modest judgment rates of masking smiles. The current study explored the role of emotion-related individual differences in the judgment of authenticity and recognition of negative emotions in enjoyment and masking smile expressions as a potential explanation for the differences observed.

METHODS

Specifically, Experiment 1 investigated the role of emotion contagion (Doherty in J Nonverbal Behav 21:131-154, 1997), emotion intelligence (Schutte et al. in Personality Individ Differ 25:167-177, 1998), and emotion regulation (Gratz and Roemer in J Psychopathol Behav Assess 26:41-54, 2004) in smile authenticity judgment and recognition of negative emotions in masking smiles. Experiment 2 investigated the role of state and trait anxiety (Spielberger et al. in Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, 1983) in smile authenticity judgment and recognition of negative emotions in the same masking smiles. In both experiments, repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted for judgment of authenticity, probability of producing the expected response, for the detection of another emotion, and for emotion recognition. A series of correlations were also calculated between the proportion of expected responses of smile judgement and the scores on the different subscales.

RESULTS

Results of the smile judgment and recognition tasks were replicated in both studies, and echoed results from prior studies of masking smile judgment: participants rated enjoyment smiles as happier than the masking smiles and, of the masking smiles, participants responded "really happy" more often for the angry-eyes masking smiles and more often categorized fear masking smiles as "not really happy".

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, while the emotion-related individual differences used in our study seem to have an impact on recognition of basic emotions in the literature, our study suggest that these traits, except for emotional awareness, do not predict performances on the judgment of complex expressions such as masking smiles. These results provide further information regarding the factors that do and do not contribute to greater judgment of smile authenticity and recognition of negative emotions in masking smiles.

Smile judgment in substance use disorders and its relationship to interpersonal and emotional functioning: An eye-tracking investigation

The current study explored the judgments individuals with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) make regarding the authenticity of enjoyment smiles and masking smiles containing traces of negative emotions. Accuracy at identifying the masked negative emotions were also examined. Eye-movements were recorded to observe relationships between attentional processes and smile judgment. Additionally, the relationships between smile judgment, emotion dysregulation, and interpersonal problems were investigated. Twenty individuals with SUDs and twenty individuals matched on gender/age participated in the smile judgment task. Results indicated that individuals with SUDs were no different in their categorization of smiles. However, the results showed that individuals with SUDs were significantly more likely to report the presence of negative emotions in the expressions. They were also more often incorrect in their identification of the masked emotions. No link was observed between smile judgment and attentional processes. Emotional and interpersonal functioning were related more to the ability to distinguish smile authenticity than the ability to identify masked emotions.

The use of the Duchenne marker and symmetry of the expression in the judgment of smiles in schizophrenia

Research has recurrently shown that individuals with schizophrenia have impairments in emotional facial recognition and this deficit has been associated with aberrant visual scanning of the face. Because human beings have the ability to control the expression of emotion, the communication process becomes more complex. The goal of the current study was to conduct a systematic examination of the response pattern and perceptual-attentional processing in distinguishing smiles with the presence and absence of the Duchenne marker and symmetry and asymmetry of the activation in individuals with schizophrenia. Sixteen individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and 16 control individuals were asked to judge whether the smiles were really happy or not. Individuals with schizophrenia produced fewer expected responses than controls in judging the symmetric non-Duchenne smile as not really happy. In addition, like their healthy counterparts, individuals with schizophrenia showed difficulty with the judgement of asymmetric Duchenne smiles. In addition to not being as sensitive to the cues, individuals with schizophrenia show differences in their viewing patterns. While the current study does not provide clear links between these viewing patterns and judgment responses, future research should explore other explanations, such as explicit knowledge, for the differences in results.