14C. Does eye contact make neutral faces look more negative?

Lead Presenter(s)

Parker Duncan

Abstract or Description

What do people perceive when they see a neutral facial expression? Prior work in our lab has shown that people perceive photos of people with neutral facial expressions to be in a bad mood and a worse mood when making eye contact. However, photos of neutral facial expressions may not simulate real-world social interactions. We wanted to better simulate the experience of making incidental eye contact by creating videos of actors sitting in a waiting room. In some of these videos, the actors made eye contact with the camera while in others they did not. Participants will watch these videos, and we will ask them how they think the actor is feeling from good to bad. Based on our previous findings, we expect that the participants will perceive the actors as feeling bad without eye contact but even worse during eye contact. Neutral facial expressions appear to be a case where what someone is trying to convey is not aligned with what others perceive which may lead to misunderstandings. By using more realistic, dynamic stimuli, we provide a stronger test of the meaning of neutral faces than studies using static photographs.

Mentor

Dr. Jeff Larsen