1.4.14 The communicative role of emotional facial expressions in human social behavior
Victoria Rostovtseva
Project leader
Context of Research Project within a Subject of Human Capital
The human face is one of the main sources of information involved in visual non-verbal communication between people. Understanding the mechanisms of facial communication, as well as its cultural, population, and sexual characteristics, is one of the most important components of human potential research.
Project Aim
The study of the mechanisms of facial expression, the connection of individual features of facial expressions with various manifestations of human prosocial behavior, as well as the recognition of emotions through facial expressions at the cross-cultural level.
Project Objectives
- Assessment of the influence of emotional facial expression on the stimulation of prosocial behavioral reactions in social interaction partners.
- Identification of differences in information transmitted visually when perceiving static and dynamic stimuli (i.e. photo or video stimuli).
- Testing the ability of representatives of one of the ethnic groups of Southern Siberia (Tuvinians) to recognize basic emotions by facial expressions of representatives of their own (Tuvinians) and contrasting (Europeans) populations, as well as evaluating the contribution of factors such as gender and age to the accuracy of recognizing emotional facial expressions.
- Identification of culturally specific reciprocal emotional reactions of Tuvinians that arise in response to stimulative facial expressions of representatives of their populations.
Key Findings
2020
The scientific project was launched in 2022
2021
The scientific project was launched in 2022
2022
For the first time in the world, it was found that a static neutral human face bears traces of his emotional expressiveness, while men were characterized by imprinting traces of anger, sadness and surprise, and women of sadness, fear and disgust. Thus, for the first time it was shown that the emotional "profile" of a person is read on his static neutral face.
In an experimental study conducted among representatives of the population of modern nomadic pastoralists - Tuvinians (S. Erzin), it was revealed that the accuracy of recognizing anger on the male face of representatives of their population differed significantly between Tuvinians and Tuvinians: women recognized male anger worse than men by facial expressions. This variant of sexual differences is unprecedented in a number of modern world studies, which indicates the important role of culture in the perception of emotional facial expressions and non-verbal communication of a person.
2023
An experimental study of the perception of human facial features according to the criterion of "trustworthy" at the cross-population level was conducted.
It was revealed that the main distinguishing features of the faces of Buryat men who did not inspire confidence were a relatively narrower lower jaw, as well as a lower position of the eyebrows - a frown.
It is shown that the perceived trustworthiness/unreliability of the male face has certain universal features. Male faces perceived as untrustworthy have more in common in different human cultures, whereas reliability is determined by individual experience, which is culturally specific.
Publications
- Rostovtseva, V.V., and M.L. Butovskaya. 2022. Neitral’noe litso cheloveka neset otpechatok ego emotsional’nosti [Human Neutral Face Bears an Imprint of Emotionality]. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 6: 158-175. doi
- Mezentseva A.A., Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L., Ananyeva K.I., Demidov A.A. Sex differences in emotional recognition: Evidence from population of Tuvans (Southern Siberia) // Frontiers in Psychology. 2022. 13: 924486. doi
- Rostovtseva V.V., Puurtinen M., Méndez Salinas E., Cox R.F.A., Groothuis A.G.G., Butovskaya M.L., Weissing F.J. Unravelling the many facets of human cooperation in an experimental study // Scientific Reports. 2023. 13, 19573. doi
- Rostovstseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L., Mezentseva A.A., Dashieva N.B., Korotkova A.A., Kavina A., Singh M. Cross-Cultural Differences in Perception of Facial Trustworthiness Based on Geometric Morphometric Morphs. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 2024. Vol. 55(2). P. 216-235. doi
- Starchenko R.A. , Serin P.A. , Donezhuk M.Yu. "Regional identity and migration orientations of residents of the Kaliningrad region" (RU). Reaesrch Digest - №5 (34). - 2024.
Conferences
Report: Butovskaya M. L., Mezentseva A. A. Human emotions in the light of evolutionary and anthropological approaches. (Joint meeting of the American Seminar of the MAE, IEA and SPBI RAS and the Center for Cross-Cultural Psychology and Human Ethology of the IEA RAS Moscow, May 12, 2022)
Report: Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L. Emotional coloring of a neutral human face: basic emotions and gender differences. (IX International Siberian Historical Forum "Peoples of Siberia and the Far East from antiquity to the present day", Krasnoyarsk, September 14-16, 2022)
Report: Mezentseva A.A., Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L. Spontaneous mimic reaction to the demonstration of anger among Tuvinians-Erzins. (IX International Siberian Historical Forum "Peoples of Siberia and the Far East from antiquity to the present day", Krasnoyarsk, September 14-16, 2022)
Report: Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L. The neutral face of man as a mirror of emotional expressivity. (International Conference IX Alekseev Readings "Man and the Environment in the past and present: old problems and new solutions", Moscow, October 17-22, 2022)
Report: Mezentseva A.A., Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L. Spontaneous facial reaction to a demonstration of anger (according to the Tuvan sample). (International Conference IX Alekseev Readings "Man and the Environment in the past and present: old problems and new solutions", Moscow, October 17-22, 2022)
Report: Rostovtseva V.V. Human emotions are reflected on his neutral face. (Conference of Young Scientists "Topical issues of Ethnology and Anthropology", Moscow, November 14-17, 2022)
Report: Mezentseva A.A. Gender differences in emotion recognition: analysis of facial reactions by the FaceReader system. (Conference of Young Scientists "Topical issues of Ethnology and Anthropology", Moscow, November 14-17, 2022)
Report: Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L. Assessment of emotional expressivity on a neutral human face. (All-Russian Scientific Conference "Human Face in communication systems", Moscow, December 2-3, 2022)
Report: Mezentseva A.A., Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L. Gender differences in emotion recognition (according to the Tuvan sample). (All-Russian Scientific Conference "The Human Face in Communication Systems", Moscow, December 2-3, 2022)
Report: Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L., Mezentseva A.A., Dashieva N.B., Korotkova A.A., Kavina A., Singh M. Cross-cultural differences in perception of facial trustworthiness. (International Conference of the International Society for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP 2023), Limerick, Ireland, July 31 - August 5, 2023)
Report: Mezentseva A.A., Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L. Spontaneous facial reaction to the demonstration of anger in Tuvans, Mongolian pastoralists. (International Conference of the Society of Human Biology (HBA 2023), Reno, Nevada, USA, April 18-21, 2023)
Report: Mezentseva A.A. Emotional reactions to manifestations of male anger: FaceReader analysis. (XV Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia, St. Petersburg, June 26-30, 2023)
Report: Mezentseva A.A., Rostovtseva V.V., Butovskaya M.L. Spontaneous facial reaction to men anger displays: Facereader analysis. (International Conference of the International Society of Human Ethology (ISHE 2023), Recife, Brazil, July 22-25, 2023)
Report: Butovskaya M.L., Rostovtseva V.V. The human face as a source of information. (Moscow Ethological Seminar at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution named after Severtsova RAS, Moscow, 01/26/2023)