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Emotional signals in nonverbal interaction: Dyadic facilitation and convergence in expressions, appraisals, and feelings

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 26; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02699931.2011.645280

1464-0600

Martin Bruder, Dina Dosmukhambetova, Josef Nerb, Antony S. R. Manstead,

Language, Metaphor, and Cognition

Abstract We examined social facilitation and emotional convergence in amusement, sadness, and fear in dynamic interactions. Dyads of friends or strangers jointly watched emotion-eliciting films while they either could or could not communicate nonverbally. We assessed three components of each emotion (expressions, appraisals, and feelings), as well as attention to and social motives toward the co-participant. In Study 1, participants interacted through a mute videoconference. In Study 2, they sat next to each other and either were or were not separated by a partition. Results revealed that facilitation and convergence are not uniform across different emotions and emotion components. Particularly strong supporting patterns emerged for the facilitation of and convergence in smiling. When direct interaction was possible (Study 2), friends showed a general tendency for strong convergence, with the exception of fear-related appraisals. This suggests that underlying processes of emotional contagion and social appraisal are differentially relevant for different emotions. Keywords: Dyadic interactionEmotional convergenceEmotional contagionSocial appraisalFacial mimicryInterpersonal relationships ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was supported in parts by grant NE 898/3-1 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and grant PTA-026-27-1362 from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). We thank Amy Clifton, Karolin Hoffmeister, and Julia Kurfürst for support in the coding of the studies and Marco Costa for advice concerning the coding procedure. Notes 1Note that studies on mimicry usually use the intensity of motor expressions to operationalise convergence. Participants are confronted with expressions that are pre-tested as strong (e.g., unambiguously happy and angry faces). Stronger zygomaticus major (for happy faces) or corrugator supercilii (for angry faces) activation is then interpreted as expressive convergence with these stimuli. 2The remaining films included six ambivalent filler films as well as films that elicited anger (Cry Freedom), surprise (Capricorn One), and disgust (Pink Flamingos). 3Supplementary analyses showed that film order only moderated one out of 18 possible main and interaction effects of our experimental manipulations on self-reported emotions in Studies 1 and 2 (i.e., approximately the number of effects that would be expected to be significant by chance alone).