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Are Facial Displays Social? Situational Influences in the Attribution of Emotion to Facial Expressions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

José-Miguel Fernández-Dols ,
Pilar Carrera  and
James A. Russell
José-Miguel Fernández-Dols*
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Pilar Carrera
Affiliation:
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
James A. Russell
Affiliation:
Boston College
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to José-Miguel Fernández-Dols, Facultad de Psicologia.Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco. 28049 Madrid (Spain). E-mail: jose.dols@uam.es
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Abstract

Observers are remarkably consistent in attributing particular emotions to particular facial expressions, at least in Western societies. Here, we suggest that this consistency is an instance of the fundamental attribution error. We therefore hypothesized that a small variation in the procedure of the recognition study, which emphasizes situational information, would change the participants' attributions. In two studies, participants were asked to judge whether a prototypical “emotional facial expression” was more plausibly associated with a social-communicative situation (one involving communication to another person) or with an equally emotional but nonsocial, situation. Participants were found more likely to associate each facial display with the social than with the nonsocial situation. This result was found across all emotions presented (happiness, fear, disgust, anger, and sadness) and for both Spanish and Canadian participants.

La atribución de emociones a determinadas expresiones faciales es un fenómeno notablemente robusto, al menos en las sociedades occidentales. En este artículo proponemos que la consistencia de dichas atribuciones es un caso de error fundamental de atribución. Si nuestra hipótesis es correcta, pequeñas variaciones en el procedimiento de los estudios típicos sobre reconocimiento de emociones (dando un mayor énfasis a la información situacional) cambiarán de manera sustantiva la forma en la que los perceptores atribuyen emociones a las expresiones faciales. Para comprobar dicha hipótesis hemos llevado a cabo dos estudios en los que los participantes deben decidir si una expresión prototípica de emoción se asocia con una situación social (que implica comunicación con otra persona) o con una situación emocional pero no social. Nuestros sujetos asociaron la expresión facial con la situación social, en lugar de la no social. Los resultados fueron los mismos para todas las emociones consideradas (alegría, miedo, asco, enfado y tristeza) y tanto para sujetos españoles como para los canadienses.

Keywords

facial expressionrecognition of emotionemotionemotion expressionexpresión facialreconocimiento de emocionesemociónexpresión emocional
Type
Research trends
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , November 2002 , pp. 119 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

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