Effects of Tearing on the Perception of Facial Expressions of Emotion:

Evolutionary Psychology

Lawrence Ian Reed¹ 

关键词: tear;    facial expression;    signaling;   

DOI  :  10.1177/1474704915613915

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

What is the function of emotional tearing? Previous work has found a tear effect, which resolves ambiguity in neutral expressions and increases perceptions of sadness in sad expressions. Tearing, however, is associated with a variety of emotional states, and it remains unclear how the tear effect generalizes to other emotion expressions. Here we expand upon previous works by examining ratings of video clips depicting posed facial expressions presented with and without tears. We replicate Provine et al.’s (2009) findings that tearing increases perceptions of sadness in sad expressions. Furthermore, we find that tearing has specific effects on ratings of emotion (happiness, sadness, anger, and fear) and ratings of intensity and valence in neutral, positive, and negative expressions. These results suggest that tearing may serve a specific and independent communicative function, interacting with those of various expressions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC