Presidential Expressions and Viewer Emotion: Counterempathic Responses to Televised Leader Displays

• Published in: Social Science Information Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 59 - 94
• Main Authors: Bucy, Erik P., Bradley, Samuel D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi SAGE Publications 01.03.2004; Sage; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Clinton, Bill; Cognition; Communication; Electromyography; Emotions; Empathy; Expectations; Heads of state; Human body; Leaders; Leadership; Mass Media Effects; News Coverage; Nonverbal Communication; Physical Characteristics; Physiology; Political communication; Presidents; Programming (Broadcast); Responses; Social sciences; Sociology; Sociology of communication and mass media. Sociolinguistics; Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture; Sympathy; Television; Television viewing; Viewers; Violations; Leader displays; Display appropriateness; Expectancy violations; Electromyographic (EMG) measures; Emotional communication; Counterempathic responses; Candidate; Measurement; Political Sociology; Nonverbal Communication; Television Program; Information; Social Psychology; Emotions; Sociology of communication
• ISSN: 0539-0184; 1461-7412
• DOI: 10.1177/05390184040689

Despite the biological predisposition to recognize and mimic facial expressions, research has shown that contextual or experiential factors may elicit emotionally incongruent, or counterempathic, responses. This experimental study reports how counterempathic responses to televised leader displays may be evoked in political communication. Findings suggest that unexpected nonverbal communication is subject to cognitive appraisal, which may influence emotional responding. Subjects were shown a series of four news stories, each followed by a 30-second televised reaction of President Bill Clinton. The story–reaction sequences varied by story topic, level of emotion and degree of leader display appropriateness. Physiological (heart rate, skin conductance and facial muscle activation, or EMG) and emotional self-report measures indicated that evaluations of display appropriateness moderated how much attention was given to the display, the affective direction of viewers’ facial muscle activation and the level of autonomic activation, or arousal. The EMG data showed that viewers frowned in response to positive expressive displays that followed positive news. Smiling activation also decreased for high-intensity, positive displays. By manipulating the valence and intensity of the associated news event, facial mimicry, and emotional responses to leaders generally, are shown to be situationally influenced by the larger social and informational context.