Convergent and divergent responses to emotional displays of ingroup and outgroup.

In the present research, we test the assumption that emotional mimicry and contagion are moderated by group membership. We report two studies using facial electromyography (EMG; Study 1), Facial Action Coding System (FACS; Study 2), and self-reported emotions (Study 2) as dependent measures. As predicted, both studies show that ingroup anger and fear displays were mimicked to a greater extent than outgroup displays of these emotions. The self-report data in Study 2 further showed specific divergent reactions to outgroup anger and fear displays. Outgroup anger evoked fear, and outgroup fear evoked aversion. Interestingly, mimicry increased liking for ingroup models but not for outgroup models. The findings are discussed in terms of the social functions of emotions in group contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Taking your place or matching your face: Two paths to empathic embarrassment.

Empathic responding may be elicited by different processes, depending on the available situational and affective cues. We investigated two such processes, perspective-taking and nonverbal mimicry. In Study 1, participants watched an embarrassed or unembarrassed confederate dancing to music while either remaining objective or engaging in perspective-taking. Both manipulations affected empathic embarrassment. Study 2 further examined the effects of targets' embarrassment displays and observers' prior experience with the situation upon spontaneous perspective-taking, expressive mimicry, and empathic embarrassment. Embarrassment displays increased mimicry, but also spontaneous perspective-taking and subsequent empathy. Prior experience moderated the effects of embarrassment displays on perspective-taking and empathy. Path analyses demonstrated that embarrassment displays exerted indirect effects on empathic embarrassment through both perspective-taking and mimicry. The results suggest that available affective and situational cues can activate different routes to empathy, and highlight the value of simultaneously investigating target- and observer-based sources of influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suppression of Attentional Bias in PTSD.

Sixty combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder performed an emotional Stroop task under 1 of 4 contextual conditions designed to test theoretical explanations for an attentional bias suppression effect. Results revealed that when the emotional Stroop task was performed under conditions involving a future threat of either watching a combat video or giving a speech, attentional bias was inhibited. There was limited support for the prediction that the suppression effect was strongest when stressor content matched word content on the Stroop. In contrast to participants in the threat conditions, veterans who believed that they would receive additional compensation for speeded color naming or who believed that they would have no other experimental demands were slower when color naming combat-threat words. Potential theoretical explanations of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality, emotional experience, and efforts to control emotions.

Three converging, multimethod studies examined personality and emotional processes. Study 1 (N?=?321) examined links among sex, personality, and expectations for emotional events. In Study 2, participants (N?=?468) described contents of emotionally evocative slides to a partner (either a friend or a stranger). Participants reported their emotional experience, efforts to control emotion, and the anticipated reactions of their partners. Structural modeling of self-report data and analyses of observational data indicated that Agreeableness and sex were significant predictors of emotional experience and of efforts to control emotion. Study 3 (N?=?68) replicated and extended the two previous studies using psychophysiological methods to examine responses to positively and negatively charged emotional materials. Outcomes are discussed in terms of processes underlying the five-factor structural dimension of Agreeableness and links to emotional self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's Understanding of the Transmission of Genetic Disorders and Contagious Illnesses.

The authors conducted 4 studies suggesting that children attribute different modes of transmission to genetic disorders and contagious illnesses. Study 1 presented preschoolers through 5th graders and adults with "switched-at-birth" scenarios for various disorders. Study 2 presented preschoolers with the same disorders but used contagion links in a contagion context. Studies 3 and 4 presented preschoolers and adults with novel (fictitious) illnesses to determine which cues participants would use to differentiate the modes of transmission. In the presence of kinship cues, children distinguished genetic disorders from contagious illnesses, but in the presence of contagion cues, preschoolers selectively applied contagious links primarily to contagious illnesses. With novel illnesses, preschoolers and adults inferred that permanent illnesses were more likely to be transmitted by birth parents than by contagion. These results suggest that by the preschool years, children recognize that not all disorders are transmitted exclusively through germ contagion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social facilitation and inhibition of emotional expression and communication.

Does the presence of others facilitate or inhibit emotional expression? Female "senders" (n?=?45) viewed 12 emotionally loaded slides either alone or with another sender while responses were secretly videotaped. In Study 1, 14 "receivers" guessed the type of slide viewed by dyads more accurately (n?=?.366). In Study 2, 42 receivers viewed 10 senders with friends, 10 with strangers, and 10 alone. One dyad member was covered so that only 1 sender was visible. Analysis revealed significant effects of condition (alone, friend, or stranger; n?=?.456), slide type (sexual, scenic, unpleasant, or unusual; n?=?.325), and the Condition?×?Slide Type interaction (n?=?.350). Strangers had overall inhibitory effects on others. Thus, both social facilitation and inhibition of expression occurred on the basis of the emotional stimulus and personal relationship involved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cardiovascular correlates of emotional expression and suppression: Do content and gender context matter?

Three studies examined cardiovascular (CV) responses during emotional expression with empathically responsive strangers. Study 1 demonstrated that self-relevant emotional expression fostered CV reactivity consistent with challenge. Study 2 manipulated content of discussion by assigning participants to 1 of 4 conditions: emotional, nonemotional, emotional suppression, nonemotional suppression. In same-sex dyads, emotional suppression elicited CV challenge reactivity whereas emotional suppression evoked CV threat reactivity, both compared with appropriate control groups. In opposite-sex dyads, however, emotional expression engendered CV threat. Because same- and opposite-sex disclosures differed, Study 3 controlled the content of emotional expression while manipulating gender context. Results confirmed findings from the first 2 studies, indicating that both context and content of emotional expression influenced CV effects. Findings are discussed within a theoretical challenge and threat perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linking mechanisms: Emotional contagion, empathy, and imagery.

Deconstructing the emotional relationship between patient and therapist is certainly a formidable task. Using research results from experimental social psychology, psychophysiology, and developmental psychology, this essay focuses on the automatic processes of mimicry, emotional synchrony, and physiological synchrony—all preludes to empathy. For the therapist to achieve an empathic posture, however, she must also imagine the perspective of the patient. Furthermore, to broaden and sharpen her empathic lens, she must tune in to the ubiquitous current of nonverbal communication that is part and parcel of the interactive treatment process. For these reasons, imagery proves to be a crucial element in the transition from simple attunement to empathy. A clinical vignette and a neuroscience perspective on image formation help illustrate the relationship between emotional contagion and imagery. It is suggested that there is a reciprocal relationship between the emotional ambience cocreated by the two participants and image formation. Sensorial images aid in the detection of gross emotional states as well as in the nuancing of their intensity. Affective ambience, on the other hand, seems to affect the selection of one particular image versus another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

More than mere mimicry? The influence of emotion on rapid facial reactions to faces.

Within a second of seeing an emotional facial expression, people typically match that expression. These rapid facial reactions (RFRs), often termed mimicry, are implicated in emotional contagion, social perception, and embodied affect, yet ambiguity remains regarding the mechanism(s) involved. Two studies evaluated whether RFRs to faces are solely nonaffective motor responses or whether emotional processes are involved. Brow (corrugator, related to anger) and forehead (frontalis, related to fear) activity were recorded using facial electromyography (EMG) while undergraduates in two conditions (fear induction vs. neutral) viewed fear, anger, and neutral facial expressions. As predicted, fear induction increased fear expressions to angry faces within 1000 ms of exposure, demonstrating an emotional component of RFRs. This did not merely reflect increased fear from the induction, because responses to neutral faces were unaffected. Considering RFRs to be merely nonaffective automatic reactions is inaccurate. RFRs are not purely motor mimicry; emotion influences early facial responses to faces. The relevance of these data to emotional contagion, autism, and the mirror system-based perspectives on imitation is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Forest, the Trees, and the Chameleon: Context Dependence and Mimicry.

Three studies examined the relation between context dependence in information processing and behavioral mimicry. In Experiment 1, a field-dependent cognitive style was related to a greater tendency to mimic a target's behavior. In Experiment 2 context dependence was experimentally manipulated, and results showed more mimicry in the session where a context-dependent processing style was induced compared with the session where a context-independent processing style was induced. Experiment 3 provided evidence for bidirectionality in the relation between context dependence and mimicry. Specifically, participants whose posture and behavior had been unobtrusively mimicked by an experimenter subsequently processed information in a more context-dependent manner than did nonmimicked participants. Taken together, these results illustrate the interplay between basic cognitive and behavioral processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seeing the bigger picture: Training in perspective broadening reduces self-reported affect and psychophysiological response to distressing films and autobiographical memories.

Appraising negative experiences in ways that reduce associated distress is a key component of successful emotion regulation. In 4 studies, the authors examined the effects of systematically practicing appraisal skills using a computer-mediated cognitive bias modification (CBM) methodology. In Studies 1-3, healthy participants practiced applying appraisal themes linked to the idea of seeing the bigger picture to a series of distressing training films, either during each film (Study 1) or immediately after each film (Studies 2 and 3). Control participants watched the same films with no appraisal instructions. Participants who practiced appraisal, compared with controls, exhibited reduced levels of self-reported negative emotional (Studies 1-3) and electrodermal (Study 1) responses to a final test film that all participants were instructed to appraise. In Study 4, a comparable effect of appraisal practice was found using distressing autobiographical memories for participants with higher levels of negative affect. Appraisal practice also led to reduced intrusion and avoidance of the target memories in the week poststudy, compared with prestudy levels, and relative to the no-practice controls. The findings are discussed in terms of the broader literature on CBM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion and aging: Experience, expression, and control.

Age differences in emotional experience, expression, and control were investigated in 4 studies. A community sample of 127 African Americans and European Americans (ages 19–96 years) was used in Study 1; a community sample of 82 Chinese Americans and European Americans (ages 20–85 years) was used in Study 2; a community sample of 49 Norwegians drawn from 2 age groups (ages 20–35 years and 70+ years) was used in Study 3; and a sample of 1,080 American nuns (ages 24–101 years) was used in Study 4. Across studies, a consistent pattern of age differences emerged. Compared with younger participants, older participants reported fewer negative emotional experiences and greater emotional control. Findings regarding emotional expressivity were less consistent, but when there were age differences, participants reported lesser expressivity. Results are interpreted in terms of increasingly competent emotion regulation across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-Monitoring Without Awareness: Using Mimicry as a Nonconscious Affiliation Strategy.

This research sought to extend the current conceptualization of self-monitoring by examining whether self-monitoring motives and behaviors can operate outside of conscious awareness. Two studies examined nonconscious mimicry among high and low self-monitors in situations varying in affiliative cues. Participants interacted with a confederate who shook her foot (Study 1) or touched her face (Study 2). In both studies, high self-monitors were more likely to mimic the confederate's subtle gestures when they believed the confederate to be a peer (Study 1) or someone superior to them (Study 2). Low self-monitors mimicked to the same degree across conditions. Thus, when the situation contains affiliative cues, high self-monitors use mimicry as a nonconscious strategy to get along with their interaction partner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proud Americans and lucky Japanese: Cultural differences in appraisal and corresponding emotion.

Appraisal theories of emotion propose that the emotions people experience correspond to their appraisals of their situation. In other words, individual differences in emotional experiences reflect differing interpretations of the situation. We hypothesized that in similar situations, people in individualist and collectivist cultures experience different emotions because of culturally divergent causal attributions for success and failure (i.e., agency appraisals). In a test of this hypothesis, American and Japanese participants recalled a personal experience (Study 1) or imagined themselves to be in a situation (Study 2) in which they succeeded or failed, and then reported their agency appraisals and emotions. Supporting our hypothesis, cultural differences in emotions corresponded to differences in attributions. For example, in success situations, Americans reported stronger self-agency emotions (e.g., proud) than did Japanese, whereas Japanese reported a stronger situation-agency emotion (lucky). Also, cultural differences in attribution and emotion were largely explained by differences in self-enhancing motivation. When Japanese and Americans were induced to make the same attribution (Study 2), cultural differences in emotions became either nonsignificant or were markedly reduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children’s response to adult disgust elicitors: Development and acquisition.

Little is known about when or how different disgust elicitors are acquired. In Study 1, parents of children (0–18 years old) rated how their child would react to 22 disgust elicitors. Different developmental patterns were identified for core, animal, and sociomoral elicitors, with core elicitors emerging first. In Study 2, children (2–16 years old) were exposed alone and then with their parent to a range of elicitors derived from Study 1. Self-report, behavioral, and facial expression data were obtained along with measures of contagion, conservation, and contamination. Convergent evidence supported the developmental patterns reported in Study 1. Evidence for parent–child transmission was also observed, with parents of young children emoting more disgust to their offspring and showing greater behavioral avoidance. Moreover, child reactivity to animal and sociomoral elicitors and contamination correlated with parental responsiveness. Finally, young children who failed to demonstrate contagion and conservation knowledge were as reactive to core elicitors and contamination as children of the same age who demonstrated such knowledge. These findings are interpreted within an evolutionary framework in which core disgust responses are acquired early to promote avoidance of pathogens. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Magical thinking about illness virulence: Conceptions of germs from "safe" versus "dangerous" others.

AIDS-related research has documented overreactions to casual contact and underreactions to sexual risk. This contradiction is explained by "magical contagion," a principle of thinking common in traditional societies, wherein contagion is considered socially discriminating, such that harmfulness depends on the nature of the relationship between source and recipient. In Study 1, 100 undergraduate participants drew germs described as their own, a stranger's, their lover's, or a disliked peer's. Lovers' germs were depicted as less threatening than disliked peers' germs. In Study 2, scenarios described contact with a flu-infected lover, stranger, or disliked peer. New undergraduate participants (N?=?133) rated how likely they were to become ill and how severely. Although likelihood ratings did not differ, severity ratings followed a linear trend, effects of lover contact being least severe and contact with disliked peer most severe. Behavioral implications of the blurring of feelings about germ source with estimates of germ virulence are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence that a simpático self-schema accounts for differences in the self-concepts and social behavior of Latinos versus Whites (and Blacks).

On the basis of the assumption that Latino Americans use a simpático self-schema more than White Americans do, the authors predicted that the effects of this difference would be evident in the participants’ self-concepts and social behavior. As predicted, Studies 1 and 2 revealed that Latino participants reported significantly more simpático-related terms in their spontaneous self-concepts than did White participants. Complementing these findings, Study 3a revealed that the level of interactional involvement and the perceived quality of initial same-sex interactions was significantly enhanced by the presence of Latino dyad members. Study 3b tested the prediction that the content of the dyad members’ thoughts and feelings would reveal a greater use of the simpático self-schema by the Latino participants. This prediction was confirmed, and follow-up analyses indicated that a simpático self-schema plays an important mediating role in the subjective experience and social behavior of Latino individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Protestant relational ideology and (in)attention to relational cues in work settings.

M. Weber (1947) proposed that exposure to Calvinist Protestantism is associated with limited attention to relational concerns in work settings. Two experiments provide support for this proposition. Study 1 showed that Protestant European Americans raised in traditions of Calvinism were less attentive to affect in spoken words when primed with a work context relative to a nonwork context, and to participants raised as Catholics in either context. Study 2 used an unconscious mimicry paradigm to measure relational focus and showed that within a work setting, male Protestants mimicked a confederate's foot shaking less than male non-Protestants and women in either group. Within a nonwork setting, male Protestants mimicked more and did not differ from male non-Protestants. Women showed greater mimicry than men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional Projection: How Fundamental Social Motives Can Bias Interpersonal Perception.

Results from 2 experimental studies suggest that self-protection and mate-search goals lead to the perception of functionally relevant emotional expressions in goal-relevant social targets. Activating a self-protection goal led participants to perceive greater anger in Black male faces (Study 1) and Arab faces (Study 2), both out-groups heuristically associated with physical threat. In Study 2, participants' level of implicit Arab-threat associations moderated this bias. Activating a mate-search goal led male, but not female, participants to perceive more sexual arousal in attractive opposite-sex targets (Study 1). Activating these goals did not influence perceptions of goal-irrelevant targets. Additionally, participants with chronic self-protective and mate-search goals exhibited similar biases. Findings are consistent with a functionalist, motivation-based account of interpersonal perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beliefs about emotional residue: The idea that emotions leave a trace in the physical environment.

Drawing upon the literatures on beliefs about magical contagion and property transmission, we examined people's belief in a novel mechanism of human-to-human contagion, emotional residue. This is the lay belief that people's emotions leave traces in the physical environment, which can later influence others or be sensed by others. Studies 1–4 demonstrated that Indians are more likely than Americans to endorse a lay theory of emotions as substances that move in and out of the body, and to claim that they can sense emotional residue. However, when the belief in emotional residue is measured implicitly, both Indians and American believe to a similar extent that emotional residue influences the moods and behaviors of those who come into contact with it (Studies 5–7). Both Indians and Americans also believe that closer relationships and a larger number of people yield more detectable residue (Study 8). Finally, Study 9 demonstrated that beliefs about emotional residue can influence people's behaviors. Together, these finding suggest that emotional residue is likely to be an intuitive concept, one that people in different cultures acquire even without explicit instruction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)