Facial mimicry is independent of stimulus format : Evidence for facial mimicry of stick figures and photographs

The present research investigated facial mimicry of the basic emotions joy, anger, and sadness in response to stimuli in different formats. Specifically, in an electromyography study, 120 participants rated the expressions of joyful, angry, and sad faces presented as photographs or stick figures while facial muscle activity was measured. Using both frequentist and Bayesian approaches to hypothesis testing, we found strong support for a facial mimicry effect: Participants showed higher zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi activity (smiling) towards joyful faces, while they showed higher corrugator supercilii activity (frowning) towards angry and sad faces. Although participants rated the stick figures as more abstract and less interesting stimuli, the mimicry effect was equally strong and independent of the format in which the faces were presented (photographs or stick figures). Additionally, participants showed enhanced emotion recognition for stick figures compared to photographs, which, however, was unrelated to mimicry. The findings suggest that facial mimicry occurs in response to stimuli varying in their abstractness and might be more robust to social-cognitive influences than previously assumed

Existential threat and responses to emotional displays of ingroup and outgroup members

The present research investigates how emotional displays shape reactions to ingroup and outgroup members when people are reminded of death. We hypothesized that under mortality salience, emotions that signal social distance promote worldview defense (i.e., increased ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation), whereas emotions that signal affiliation promote affiliation need (i.e., reduced ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation). In three studies, participants viewed emotional displays of ingroup and/or outgroup members after a mortality salience or control manipulation. Results revealed that under mortality salience, anger increased ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation (Study 1), enhanced perceived overlap with the ingroup (Study 3), and increased positive facial behavior to ingroup displays—measured via the Facial Action Coding System (Studies 1 and 2) and electromyography of the zygomaticus major muscle (Study 3). In contrast, happiness decreased ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation (Study 2), and increased positive facial behavior towards outgroup members (Study 3). The findings suggest that, in times of threat, emotional displays can determine whether people move away from unfamiliar others or try to form as many friendly relations as possible

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A meta-analysis of Libet-style experiments

This OSF project contains all data, code, a complete list of the coded characteristics, the coding sheet, additional supplementary analyses, and further materials

The too-much-mimicry effect: Strong compared to subtle mimicry can impair interpersonal perceptions and anchoring susceptibility

This project contains open materials, open data and code, supplemental materials of two experiments and a pre-registration protocol of one experiment described in the paper "The Too-Much-Mimicry Effect: Strong (vs. Subtle) Mimicry Impairs Liking and Trust in Distributive Negotiations

AutoUI '23 - Trust me, I am an Agent: Warmth and Competence as Factors for Trust in Autonomous Driving

Additional material for the study submitted for Automotive UI 202