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A large body of research on emotion communication has demonstrated that facial muscle movements (i.e., facial expressions) influence social perceptions made from faces. However, new research suggests that head position can also affect the way that faces are perceived, by systematically changing the appearance of the face. More specifically, according to the action-unit imposter account, tilting one's head downward causes the eyebrows to appear lower and take on a V shape-the same appearance cues associated with a particular facial muscle movement (corrugator activity, or Action Unit 4 [AU4]). Drawing on this account, four studies (two of which were preregistered) tested whether a downward head tilt intensifies perceptions of facial expressions of emotion that include V-shaped eyebrows from AU4 but weaken perceptions of expressions that do not. Supporting this hypothesis, findings showed that (a) when the head is tilted downward, anger expressions-which include V-shaped eyebrows from AU4-are perceived as more intense, whereas expressions of happiness, disgust, fear, and surprise-which do not include V-shaped eyebrows from AU4-are perceived as less intense; (b) visually apparent changes to the eyebrows caused by the action-unit imposter effect account for the effect of a downward head tilt on perceptions of anger; and (c) this head movement is spontaneously used by individuals seeking to encode facial expressions of anger. Together, findings suggest that head movements play an important role in communicating emotion expressions from the face, especially anger. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Research on emotion communication typically focuses on facial expressions, yet scientists dating back to Darwin have noted the importance of the body in conveying emotions. In fact, studies have found that the body is reliably used to express and recognize anger, fear, and sadness, by individuals in several industrialized populations. Here, we provide the first evidence that bodily expressions of these three emotions are reliably recognized by members of an isolated small-scale traditional society: the Mayangna of Nicaragua. Specifically, we found that recognition rates for sadness and anger bodily expressions were high, and recognition rates for a fear bodily expression were lower but still significantly greater than chance. Given that the Mayangna are unlikely to have learned these bodily expressions through cross-cultural transmission, their ability to recognize these displays provides strong evidence for the universality of each expression. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00052-y.

Pride is a positively valenced emotion that occurs in response to success and is comprised of two distinct facets: authentic pride, characterized by feelings of accomplishment and confidence; and hubristic pride, characterized by feelings of arrogance and conceit. The two facets diverge in their associations with a range of personality traits and social consequences, but they share a nonverbal expression and evolutionary function. Specifically, both pride facets facilitate the attainment of social rank, but in notably different ways: authentic pride motivates hard work to get ahead, whereas hubristic pride is associated with more antisocial and dishonest means to high status. In closing, we discuss how knowledge of pride can inform research into other positive emotions.

Past research has demonstrated that children understand distinct emotion concepts and can accurately recognize facial expressions of distinct emotions by a young age, but few studies have assessed the age at which children develop the ability to recognize bodily expressions of distinct emotions. The current pre-registered research is the largest study to date (N = 552) examining the age at which children begin to recognize static bodily expressions of three negative emotions: anger, fear, and sadness. Our findings suggest that bodily expressions of sadness are recognized at rates consistently above chance by the age of 3-years, fear around the age of 4- to 5-years, and anger between the ages of 6- and 8-years. Recognition of all three expressions increased with age. The current research is the first to address this question using an entirely between-subjects design, allowing us to rule out the possibility that accurate recognition occurred as a result of a process of elimination or memory. Together, these findings suggest that children can reliably identify distinct negative emotions from bodily expressions, and this ability varies by age and the specific emotion being identified.

Prior research has found an association between pride experiences and social rank outcomes. However, the causal direction of this relationship remains unclear. The current research used a longitudinal design ( N = 1,653) to investigate whether pride experiences are likely to be a cause, consequence, or both, of social rank outcomes, by tracking changes in individuals’ pride and social rank over time. Prior research also has uncovered distinct correlational relationships between the two facets of pride, authentic and hubristic, and two forms of social rank, prestige and dominance, respectively. We therefore separately examined longitudinal relationships between each pride facet and each form of social rank. Results reveal distinct bidirectional relationships between authentic pride and prestige and hubristic pride and dominance, suggesting that specific kinds of pride experiences and specific forms of social rank are both an antecedent and a consequence of one another.

Converging evidence suggests that high rank is communicated through various nonverbal behaviors (e.g., expansiveness), but prior studies have not examined whether 2 distinct forms of high rank-known as prestige and dominance-are communicated through distinct nonverbal displays. Given the divergent messages that prestigious and dominant leaders need to send in order to attain and retain their place in the social hierarchy, theoretical accounts would suggest that individuals use distinct sets of nonverbal behaviors to communicate these 2 forms of high rank. In the present research, we tested this hypothesis in 7 studies, using carefully controlled experimental designs (Studies 1, 2, 3, 4a, and 4b) and the assessment of spontaneously displayed nonverbal behaviors that occurred during a lab-based group interaction (Study 5) and a real-world political contest (Study 6). Results converged across studies to show that prestige and dominance strategies are associated with distinct sets of nonverbal behaviors, which are largely consistent with theoretical predictions. Specifically, prestige, or the attainment of rank through earned respect, and dominance, or the use of intimidation and force to obtain power, are communicated from different head positions (i.e., tilted upward vs. downward), smiling behaviors (i.e., presence vs. absence of a symmetrical smile), and different forms of bodily expansion (i.e., subtle chest expansion vs. more grandiose space-taking). These findings provide the first evidence for 2 distinct signals of high rank, which spontaneously emerge in social interactions and guide social perceptions and the conferral of power. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The present pre-registered research provides the first evidence that a downwards head tilt is sufficient to communicate dominance from a neutral facial expression among the Mayangna, members of an unindustrialized, small-scale traditional society in Nicaragua who have had minimal exposure to North American culture. Consistent with the Action Unit imposter effect observed in North American populations (Witkower and Tracy in Psychol Sci 30:893–906, 2019), changes to the appearance of the upper face caused by a downwards head tilt were sufficient to elicit perceptions of dominance among this population. Given that the Mayangna are unlikely to associate a downwards head tilt or related apparent facial changes with dominance as a result of cross-cultural learning, the present results suggest that perceptions of dominance formed from a downwards head tilt, and the visual illusion shaping these perceptions, are a widely generalizable, and possibly universal, feature of human psychology.

Abstract Social face evaluation is a common and consequential element of everyday life based on the judgement of trustworthiness. However, the particular facial regions that guide such trustworthiness judgements are largely unknown. It is also unclear whether different facial regions are consistently utilized to guide judgments for different ethnic groups, and whether previous exposure to specific ethnicities in one’s social environment has an influence on trustworthiness judgements made from faces or facial regions. This registered report addressed these questions through a global online survey study that recruited Asian, Black, Latino, and White raters (N = 4580). Raters were shown full faces and specific parts of the face for an ethnically diverse, sex-balanced set of 32 targets and rated targets’ trustworthiness. Multilevel modelling showed that in forming trustworthiness judgements, raters relied most strongly on the eyes (with no substantial information loss vis-à-vis full faces). Corroborating ingroup–outgroup effects, raters rated faces and facial parts of targets with whom they shared their ethnicity, sex, or eye color as significantly more trustworthy. Exposure to ethnic groups in raters’ social environment predicted trustworthiness ratings of other ethnic groups in nuanced ways. That is, raters from the ambient ethnic majority provided slightly higher trustworthiness ratings for stimuli of their own ethnicity compared to minority ethnicities. In contrast, raters from an ambient ethnic minority (e.g., immigrants) provided substantially lower trustworthiness ratings for stimuli of the ethnic majority. Taken together, the current study provides a new window into the psychological processes underlying social face evaluation and its cultural generalizability. Protocol registration The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 7 January 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.18319244.

Smiles are nonverbal signals that convey social information and influence the social behavior of recipients, but the precise form and social function of a smile can be variable. In previous work, we have proposed that there are at least three physically distinct types of smiles associated with specific social functions: reward smiles signal positive affect and reinforce desired behavior; affiliation smiles signal non-threat and promote peaceful social interactions; dominance smiles signal feelings of superiority and are used to negotiate status hierarchies. The present work advances the science of the smile by addressing a number of questions that directly arise from this smile typology. What do perceivers

Smiles are nonverbal signals that convey social information and influence the social behavior of recipients, but the precise form and social function of a smile can be variable. In previous work, we have proposed that there are at least three physically distinct types of smiles associated with specific social functions: reward smiles signal positive affect and reinforce desired behavior, affiliation smiles signal non-threat and promote peaceful social interactions, dominance smiles signal feelings of superiority and are used to negotiate status hierarchies. The present work advances the science of the smile by addressing a number of questions that directly arise from this smile typology. What do perceivers think when they see each type of smile (study 1)? How do perceivers behave in response to each type of smile (study 2)? Do people produce three physically distinct smiles in response to contexts related to each of the three social functions of smiles (study 3)? We then use an online machine learning platform to uncover the labels that lay people use to conceptualize the smile of affiliation, which is a smile that serves its social function but lacks a corresponding lay concept. Taken together, the present findings support the conclusion that reward, affiliation, and dominance smiles are distinct signals with specific social functions. These findings challenge the traditional assumption that smiles merely convey whether and to what extent a smiler is happy and demonstrate the utility of a social–functional approach to the study of facial expression.

The present work advances the science of the smile by investigating how perceivers mentally represent this heterogenous expression. Across both perception- and production-based tasks, we report evidence that perceivers mentally represent reward, affiliation, and dominance smiles as distinct categories associated with specific behaviors, social contexts, and facial movements. Study 1 demonstrates that perceivers expect to behave differently in response to each type of smile when embedded in a simulated economic game. Study 2 demonstrates that perceivers use distinct words to describe the social contexts in which they anticipate encountering each type of smile. Study 3 demonstrates that producers use distinct facial movements when prompted with social contexts related to the theorized social function of each smile. Taken together, the present findings support the conclusion that reward, affiliation, and dominance smiles are mentally represented as distinct categories, bringing us one step closer to understanding smiles as nuanced social signals.

A large body of research has emerged to suggest that the self-conscious emotion of pride is a universal and evolved part of human nature, which functions to help individuals navigate their social hierarchies, motivating them to engage in behaviors that allow them to attain and maintain social rank, and communicating to others which group members are deserving of rank attainment and should be targets of social learning. Studies also suggest that there are two distinct facets of pride: authentic and hubristic, associated with distinct forms of self-favorability—self-esteem and narcissism, respectively. Furthermore, each pride facet may function to facilitate the attainment of a distinct form of social rank: prestige versus dominance. We review findings supporting this account, as well as evidence for the prestige and dominance model of social rank, and for a novel account of pride as the critical affective mechanism underlying cumulative cultural evolution.

Although scientists dating back to Darwin have noted the importance of the body in communicating emotion, current research on emotion communication tends to emphasize the face. In this article we review the evidence for bodily expressions of emotions—that is, the handful of emotions that are displayed and recognized from certain bodily behaviors (i.e., pride, joy, sadness, shame, embarrassment, anger, fear, and disgust). We also review the previously developed coding systems available for identifying emotions from bodily behaviors. Although no extant coding system provides an exhaustive list of bodily behaviors known to communicate a panoply of emotions, our review provides the foundation for developing such a system.

Research in the social sciences has largely relied on Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) participants, yet scholars tend to use findings from such WEIRD samples to draw conclusions about human psychology at large. There is, however, one prominent area of psychological science drawing on evolutionary theory that marks a major exception to this trend: research on the nonverbal expression of emotion. We briefly review the major findings from this literature, highlighting the ways in which researchers have effectively used participant samples from “maximally divergent populations” to address questions about universality and, in turn, the evolutionary basis of nonverbal displays.

Research on face perception tends to focus on facial morphology and the activation of facial muscles while ignoring any impact of head position. We raise questions about this approach by demonstrating that head movements can dramatically shift the appearance of the face to shape social judgments without engaging facial musculature. In five studies (total N = 1,517), we found that when eye gaze was directed forward, tilting one’s head downward (compared with a neutral angle) increased perceptions of dominance, and this effect was due to the illusory appearance of lowered and V-shaped eyebrows caused by a downward head tilt. Tilting one’s head downward therefore functions as an action-unit imposter, creating the artificial appearance of a facial action unit that has a strong effect on social perception. Social judgments about faces are therefore driven not only by facial shape and musculature but also by movements in the face’s physical foundation: the head.

The Barlett and Gentile Cyberbullying Model (BGCM) is a learning-based theory that posits the importance of positive cyberbullying attitudes predicting subsequent cyberbullying perpetration. Furthermore, the tenants of the BGCM state that cyberbullying attitude are likely to form when the online aggressor believes that the online environment allows individuals of all physical sizes to harm others and they are perceived as anonymous. Past work has tested parts of the BGCM; no study has used longitudinal methods to examine this model fully. The current study (N = 161) employed a three-wave longitudinal design to test the BGCM. Participants (age range: 18-24) completed measures of the belief that physical strength is irrelevant online and anonymity perceptions at Wave 1, cyberbullying attitudes at Wave 2, and cyberbullying perpetration at Wave 3. RESULTS showed strong support for the BGCM: anonymity perceptions and the belief that physical attributes are irrelevant online at Wave 1 predicted Wave 2 cyberbullying attitudes, which predicted subsequent Wave 3 cyberbullying perpetration. These results support the BGCM and are the first to show empirical support for this model. Aggr. Behav. 9999:1-8, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Language: en

In two experimental studies, we examine the extent to which strong or weak mitigating information after a provocation alters aggressive responding. In Study 1, we randomly assigned 215 (108 female) college-aged participants to a strong or weak provocation by having a research assistant talk to the participant about failing a task in a harsh or confused tone. This was followed by a second research assistant giving a strong or weak excuse to the participant regarding the first research assistant's behavior. Then, aggressive behavior was assessed using a researcher rating task. In Study 2, 63 (25 female) college-aged participants interacted with a confederate on the CRT. All participants were strongly provoked by receiving strong noise blasts. After five CRT trials, the confederate delivered weak or strong mitigating information to the participant regarding the noises blasts. The results indicated that: (i) strong provocations are more likely to increase aggression than weak provocations; (ii) strong mitigating information is more likely to decrease aggression than weak mitigating information; and (iii) the varying strength of mitigating information is important in situations involving weak, but not strong provocations: strong mitigating information is more likely than weak mitigating information reduce aggression when provocation is strong, but not when provocation is weak. We discuss the importance of mitigating information in decreasing aggressive behavior and the conditions in which mitigating information is especially likely to be effective. Aggr. Behav. 42:555-562, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Barlett and Gentile Cyberbullying Model (BGCM) is a learning-based theory that posits the importance of positive cyberbullying attitudes predicting subsequent cyberbullying perpetration. Furthermore, the tenants of the BGCM state that cyberbullying attitude are likely to form when the online aggressor believes that the online environment allows individuals of all physical sizes to harm others and they are perceived as anonymous. Past work has tested parts of the BGCM; no study has used longitudinal methods to examine this model fully. The current study (N = 161) employed a three-wave longitudinal design to test the BGCM. Participants (age range: 18-24) completed measures of the belief that physical strength is irrelevant online and anonymity perceptions at Wave 1, cyberbullying attitudes at Wave 2, and cyberbullying perpetration at Wave 3. Results showed strong support for the BGCM: anonymity perceptions and the belief that physical attributes are irrelevant online at Wave 1 predicted Wave 2 cyberbullying attitudes, which predicted subsequent Wave 3 cyberbullying perpetration. These results support the BGCM and are the first to show empirical support for this model. Aggr. Behav. 43:147-154, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In two experimental studies, we examine the extent to which strong or weak mitigating information after a provocation alters aggressive responding. In Study 1, we randomly assigned 215 (108 female) college-aged participants to a strong or weak provocation by having a research assistant talk to the participant about failing a task in a harsh or confused tone. This was followed by a second research assistant giving a strong or weak excuse to the participant regarding the first research assistant's behavior. Then, aggressive behavior was assessed using a researcher rating task. In Study 2, 63 (25 female) college-aged participants interacted with a confederate on the CRT. All participants were strongly provoked by receiving strong noise blasts. After five CRT trials, the confederate delivered weak or strong mitigating information to the participant regarding the noises blasts. The results indicated that: (i) strong provocations are more likely to increase aggression than weak provocations; (ii) strong mitigating information is more likely to decrease aggression than weak mitigating information; and (iii) the varying strength of mitigating information is important in situations involving weak, but not strong provocations: strong mitigating information is more likely than weak mitigating information reduce aggression when provocation is strong, but not when provocation is weak. We discuss the importance of mitigating information in decreasing aggressive behavior and the conditions in which mitigating information is especially likely to be effective. Aggr. Behav. 42:555-562, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.