Affiliation:
1. Department of psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Abstract
Background: Emotional mimicry, a phenomenon frequently observed in our everyday interactions, is the act of replicating another individual’s facial expression. The Emotion Mimicry in Context View and the Correction Hypothesis underscore the critical role of context and intention within emotional mimicry. Methods: In two distinct studies, participants were presented with facial expressions of models (happiness and anger) within various contexts (affiliative, distancing, and neutral). Concurrently, we recorded electromyography (EMG) to index emotional mimicry, while participants explicitly rated the models’ intentions. Results: We observed context swiftly influences emotional mimicry within 500 ms, notably when the intentions of contexts are opposing to the intentions of facial expressions, leading to weakened muscle responses and diminished perceived intention. Furthermore, a notable correlation was discovered in the mimicry of angry faces; the more distancing the context, the stronger the corrugator supercilii (CS) muscle activity after context processing. Conclusions: First, emotional mimicry should not be simply viewed as an output corresponding to the expresser’s facial expressions but the dynamic process involving the active participation of the observer. Second, intention serves as a pivotal anchor, effectively integrating facial and contextual information. As such, we provided empirical support for the Correction Hypothesis.
Funder
National Social Science Foundation of China
Subject
Behavioral Neuroscience,General Psychology,Genetics,Development,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference42 articles.
1. Emotional Mimicry as Social Regulation;Hess;Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev.,2013
2. Emotional Mimicry: Why and When We Mimic Emotions: Emotional Mimicry;Hess;Soc. Personal. Psychol. Compass,2014
3. Modulation of Facial Reactions to Avatar Emotional Faces by Nonconscious Competition Priming;Weyers;Psychophysiology,2009
4. The Impact of Social Context on Mimicry;Bourgeois;Biol. Psychol.,2008
5. Lewis, I., Haviland-Jones, J., and Barrett, L. (2016). Handbook of Emotions, Guilford.