From Data to Truth in Psychological Science. A Personal Perspective.

Frontiers in Psychology

Fritz Strack¹ 

关键词: replication;    social psychology;    methodology;    critical discourse;    theory testing;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00702

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Over 30 years ago, Leonard Martin, Sabine Stepper, and I (Strack et al., 1988) conducted two studies to test the “facial feedback” hypothesis (Darwin, 1872). At the time, the hypothesis itself, namely that facial expressions may affect emotional experiences, was well established and frequently tested (e.g., Leventhal and Mace, 1970; Laird, 1974). However, the underlying mechanism remained largely unexplored. On the one hand, the feedback could have been mediated by an inference from the emotional meaning of the expression to the underlying emotional state. On the other hand it could have been a more direct mechanism that does not involve any inferences. To resolve this ambiguity, we attempted to eliminate the inferential route by preventing participants from interpreting their facial action as “a smile.” This was accomplished by having participants holding a pen either between their protruded lips, which prevents smiling, or between their teeth, which facilitates it. Holding the pen in either of these positions, participants had to perform a series of tasks, among them a rating of the funniness of cartoons. As predicted, the cartoons were rated to be funnier if the pen was held between the teeth than between the lips. The effect was not strong but met the standard criteria of significance.

【 授权许可】

CC BY