A walk through the park: Understanding emotional mimicry in an ecological context

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Ursula Hess
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 431077921

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

The present project had the aim to test the hypothesis that the environment in which we encounter someone influences emotion communication – specifically, emotional mimicry, the automatic imitation of the emotional expressive behaviors of others. We expected that, due to the influence of positive emotions elicited by the positive environment, participants would experience more interpersonal closeness to the expressers. In turn, increased feelings of closeness should lead to more mimicry. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of experiments showing realistic avatars embedded in a park scenario with either a pleasant (green areas, bird song) and unpleasant (deforestation, construction site with construction noise) environments. Avatars were either young or old appearing (Study 1) or varied in ethnicity (Study 2). The results confirmed that participants felt closer to avatars in the pleasant than in the unpleasant environment. Closeness also mediated the effect of context. The research shows the importance to extend research on emotion communication by including the environmental context in which the emotional exchange takes place.

Publications

• (Un)mask yourself! Effects of face masks on facial mimicry and emotion perception during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cognition and Emotion, 36(1), 59-69.
  Kastendieck, Till; Zillmer, Stephan & Hess, Ursula
  
• Can I See Your Open Face? Openface 2.0 as an Alternative to Electromyography for Studying Facial Mimicry of Mask-Covered Faces During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Paper presented at the 2021 Virtual Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, October 10-18.
  Kastendieck, T., Zillmer, S. & Hess, U.
  
• Changing faces, changing emotions? Effects of face masks on emotion communication during the COVID-19 pandemic in light of the affective turn in cognitive science. Paper presented at the Italian Association of Cognitive Science (AISC) midterm conference 2022, Parma, Italy, June, 22-24.
  Kastendieck, T. Zillmer, S., Mauersberger, H., Masch, L., Dippel, N., Asbrand & J. & Hess, U.
  
• Facial mimicry as a communicative act. Keynote presented at the 2022 ESCON Meeting, Milan, Italy, August 29-31.
  Hess, U.
  
• Mimicry top-down and from the bottom-up. Keynote presented at the Italian Association of Cognitive Science (AISC) midterm conference 2022. Parma, Italy, June 22-24.
  Hess, U.
  
• Sensing Others - A Walk in the Park? Emotion Perception, Social Perception, Interpersonal Closeness and Emotional Mimicry in Response to Embedded Avatar Faces. Paper presented at the FEEL-COG: The Role of Affect in the Development of Cognition Workshop at the IEEE International Conference on development and learning. London, UK, September 12-15.
  Kastendieck, T., Huppertz, D., Mauersberger, H. & Hess, U.
  
• Uncovering Covered Expressions: New Evidence on Emotional Mimicry During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, Vancouver, Canada, September-October, 28-2.
  Kastendieck, T., Zillmer, S., Dippel, N., Hess, U. & Asbrand, J.
  
• “I See Behind Each Mask that Wonder a Kindred Soul”: What do Face Masks Mean for Emotional Mimicry Research? Paper presented presented at the Conference of the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE), Granada, Spain, Juin 10-11.
  Kastendieck, T. Zillmer, S., Mauersberger, H., Masch, L., Dippel, N., Asbrand & J. & Hess, U.