A smile radiates outwards and biases the eye expression

  1. Fernández Martín, Andrés 1
  2. Gutiérrez García, Aida 2
  3. Gutiérrez Calvo, Manuel 1
  1. 1 Universidad de La Laguna
    info

    Universidad de La Laguna

    San Cristobal de La Laguna, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01r9z8p25

  2. 2 Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Burgos
    info

    Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Burgos

    Burgos, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01j5v0d02

Revue:
The Spanish Journal of Psychology

ISSN: 1138-7416

Année de publication: 2013

Número: 16

Pages: 1-11

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1017/SJP.2013.68 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAccès ouvert editor

D'autres publications dans: The Spanish Journal of Psychology

Objectifs de Développement Durable

Résumé

This study investigated how extrafoveally seen smiles influence the viewers� perception of non-happy eyes in a face. A smiling mouth appeared in composite faces with incongruent (angry, fearful, neutral, etc.) eyes, thus producing blended expressions, or they appeared in intact faces with genuine expressions. Overt attention to the eye region was spatially cued, foveal vision of the mouth was blocked by gaze-contingent masking, and the distance between the eyes and the mouth was varied. Participants evaluated whether the eyes were happy or not. Results indicated that the same non-happy eyes were more likely to be judged as happy, and more slowly to be judged as not happy, in presence more than in absence of a smile. As (a) the smiling mouth was highly salient regardless of type of eyes, (b) the influence on the eyes increased gradually as a function of eye-mouth proximity, and (c) the effect occurred in the absence of fixations on the mouth, we conclude that a salient smile radiates outwards to other face regions through a projection mechanism, thus making the eye expression look happy.

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