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Faces in-between : evaluations reflect the interplay of facial features and task-dependent fluency.
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Winkielman, Piotr, Olszanowski, Michal and Gola, Mateusz (2015) Faces in-between : evaluations reflect the interplay of facial features and task-dependent fluency. Emotion, 15 (2). pp. 232-242. doi:10.1037/emo0000036 ISSN 1528-3542.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000036
Abstract
Facial features influence social evaluations. For example, faces are rated as more attractive and trustworthy when they have more smiling features and also more female features. However, the influence of facial features on evaluations should be qualified by the affective consequences of fluency (cognitive ease) with which such features are processed. Further, fluency (along with its affective consequences) should depend on whether the current task highlights conflict between specific features. Four experiments are presented. In 3 experiments, participants saw faces varying in expressions ranging from pure anger, through mixed expression, to pure happiness. Perceivers first categorized faces either on a control dimension, or an emotional dimension (angry/happy). Thus, the emotional categorization task made “pure” expressions fluent and “mixed” expressions disfluent. Next, participants made social evaluations. Results show that after emotional categorization, but not control categorization, targets with mixed expressions are relatively devalued. Further, this effect is mediated by categorization disfluency. Additional data from facial electromyography reveal that on a basic physiological level, affective devaluation of mixed expressions is driven by their objective ambiguity. The fourth experiment shows that the relative devaluation of mixed faces that vary in gender ambiguity requires a gender categorization task. Overall, these studies highlight that the impact of facial features on evaluation is qualified by their fluency, and that the fluency of features is a function of the current task. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for research on emotional reactions to ambiguity.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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Journal or Publication Title: | Emotion | ||||
Publisher: | American Psychological Association | ||||
ISSN: | 1528-3542 | ||||
Official Date: | 15 April 2015 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 15 | ||||
Number: | 2 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 232-242 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1037/emo0000036 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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