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Familiar eyes are smiling: on the role of familiarity in the perception of facial affect
Author(s) -
Claypool Heather M.,
Hugenberg Kurt,
Housley Meghan K.,
Mackie Diane M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.422
Subject(s) - psychology , affect (linguistics) , happiness , anger , perception , social psychology , facial expression , face (sociological concept) , face perception , social perception , cognitive psychology , communication , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience
Quickly and accurately perceiving others' facial affect is paramount for successful social interaction. This work investigates the role of familiarity in helping us to interpret others' facial emotions. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants viewed several faces, some familiar and some novel, and judged how happy each face appeared. As predicted, results showed that familiar faces were perceived as happier than were novel faces. In Experiment 3, participants again viewed several faces, some familiar and some not, and rated the perceived anger or happiness of these faces. As expected, familiar faces were perceived as happier and less angry than were novel faces. Thus, these results suggest that familiarity is one cue we use to interpret the facial affect of others. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.