Inhibiting Facial Expressions: Limitations to the Voluntary Control of Facial Expressions of Emotion

Recently, A. J. Fridlund (e.g., 1994) and others suggested that facial expressions of emotion are not linked to emotion and can be completely accounted for by social motivation. To clarify the influence of social motivation on the production of facial displays, we created an explicit motivation by u...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inMotivation and emotion Vol. 24; no. 4; p. 259
Main Authors Kappas, Arvid, Bherer, François, Thériault, Mélanie
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer Nature B.V 01.12.2000
Subjects
Muscular system
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Recently, A. J. Fridlund (e.g., 1994) and others suggested that facial expressions of emotion are not linked to emotion and can be completely accounted for by social motivation. To clarify the influence of social motivation on the production of facial displays, we created an explicit motivation by using facial inhibition instructions. While facial electromyographic activity was recorded at three sites, participants saw humorous video stimuli in two conditions (inhibition, spontaneous) and neutral stimuli in a spontaneous condition. Participants showed significantly more EMG activity in the cheek region and less EMG activity in the brow region when they tried to completely inhibit amused expressions as compared with the neutral control task. Our results suggest that explicit motivation in the sense of voluntary control is not sufficient to mask the effects of spontaneous facial activation linked to humorous stimuli.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0146-7239
1573-6644
DOI:10.1023/A:1010718815960