Effects of Social Anxiety on Emotional Mimicry and Contagion: Feeling Negative, but Smiling Politely

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior
Corine DijkGerben A van Kleef

Abstract

Socially anxiety may be related to a different pattern of facial mimicry and contagion of others' emotions. We report two studies in which participants with different levels of social anxiety reacted to others' emotional displays, either shown on a computer screen (Study 1) or in an actual social interaction (Study 2). Study 1 examined facial mimicry and emotional contagion in response to displays of happiness, anger, fear, and contempt. Participants mimicked negative and positive emotions to some extent, but we found no relation between mimicry and the social anxiety level of the participants. Furthermore, socially anxious individuals were more prone to experience negative emotions and felt more irritated in response to negative emotion displays. In Study 2, we found that social anxiety was related to enhanced mimicry of smiling, but this was only the case for polite smiles and not for enjoyment smiles. These results suggest that socially anxious individuals tend to catch negative emotions from others, but suppress their expression by mimicking positive displays. This may be explained by the tendency of socially anxious individuals to avoid conflict or rejection.

References

Jan 1, 1991·Scandinavian Journal of Psychology·U Dimberg, L Christmanson
Aug 1, 1988·Journal of Abnormal Psychology·D WatsonG Carey
Oct 1, 1986·Biological Psychology·U Dimberg
Jun 1, 1995·Behaviour Research and Therapy·L E Alden, S T Wallace
Nov 1, 1996·British Journal of Psychology·B Parkinson
Jul 22, 1998·Behaviour Research and Therapy·R P Mattick, J C Clarke
Dec 11, 2002·Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry·Simon Thompson, Ronald M Rapee
Oct 27, 2004·Clinical Psychology Review·Lynn E Alden, Charles T Taylor
May 4, 2005·Behaviour Research and Therapy·Pierre Philippot, Céline Douilliez
Jun 20, 2006·Cognition·Wataru Sato, Sakiko Yoshikawa
Feb 22, 2007·Depression and Anxiety·David A MoscovitchRichard P Swinson
Feb 28, 2007·Journal of Abnormal Psychology·Erin A Heerey, Ann M Kring
Aug 3, 2007·Scandinavian Journal of Psychology·Ulf Dimberg, Monika Thunberg
Jul 26, 2008·The British Journal of Clinical Psychology·Marisol J VonckenJeffrey Roelofs
Jan 13, 2009·Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry·Megan SpokasRichard G Heimberg
Jan 26, 2013·Personality and Social Psychology Review : an Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc·Ursula Hess, Agneta Fischer
Jul 13, 2013·Psychiatry Research·Katherine ButtonMarcus Munafò
Jul 15, 2015·Journal of Personality Disorders·Yelena Khvatskaya, Mark F Lenzenweger
Dec 10, 2016·Frontiers in Psychology·Krystyna RymarczykIwona Szatkowska

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Methods Mentioned

BETA
FACS
Puller

Software Mentioned

Facial Action Coding System ( FACS )
Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox
Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox ( CERT
CERT
Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases occur as a result of an attack by the immune system on the body’s own tissues resulting in damage and dysfunction. There are different types of autoimmune diseases, in which there is a complex and unknown interaction between genetics and the environment. Discover the latest research on autoimmune diseases here.