Facial Mimicry and Social Context Affect Smile Interpretation

Theoretical accounts and empirical research suggest that people use various sources of information, including sensorimotor simulation and social context, while judging emotional displays. However, the evidence on how those factors can interplay is limited. The present research tested whether social context information has a greater impact on perceivers’ smile judgments when mimicry is experimentally restricted. In Study 1, participants watched images of affiliative smiles presented with verbal descriptions of situations associated with happiness or politeness. Half the participants could freely move their faces while rating the extent to which the smiles communicated affiliation, whereas for the other half mimicry was restricted via a pen-in-mouth procedure. As predicted, smiles were perceived as more affiliative when the social context was polite than when it was happy. Importantly, the effect of context information was significantly larger among participants who could not freely mimic the facial expressions. Study 2 replicated these findings, thereby controlling for empathy and mood, and showed that social context also influences smile discrimination. Together, the findings extend the evidence on the role of verbal information in the interpretation of facial expressions and suggest that mimicry importantly modulates the impact of social context information on smile perception.