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The Enfacement Illusion Is Not Affected by Negative Facial Expressions

Beck, Brianna, Cardini, Flavia, Làdavas, Elisabetta, Bertini, Caterina (2015) The Enfacement Illusion Is Not Affected by Negative Facial Expressions. PLoS ONE, 10 (8). Article Number 136273. ISSN 1932-6203. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0136273) (KAR id:70409)

Abstract

Enfacement is an illusion wherein synchronous visual and tactile inputs update the mental representation of one’s own face to assimilate another person’s face. Emotional facial expressions, serving as communicative signals, may influence enfacement by increasing the observer’s motivation to understand the mental state of the expresser. Fearful expressions, in particular, might increase enfacement because they are valuable for adaptive behavior and more strongly represented in somatosensory cortex than other emotions. In the present study, a face was seen being touched at the same time as the participant’s own face. This face was either neutral, fearful, or angry. Anger was chosen as an emotional control condition for fear because it is similarly negative but induces less somatosensory resonance, and requires additional knowledge (i.e., contextual information and social contingencies) to effectively guide behavior. We hypothesized that seeing a fearful face (but not an angry one) would increase enfacement because of greater somatosensory resonance. Surprisingly, neither fearful nor angry expressions modulated the degree of enfacement relative to neutral expressions. Synchronous interpersonal visuo-tactile stimulation led to assimilation of the other’s face, but this assimilation was not modulated by facial expression processing. This finding suggests that dynamic, multisensory processes of self-face identification operate independently of facial expression processing.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136273
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: Brianna Beck
Date Deposited: 03 Dec 2018 11:57 UTC
Last Modified: 08 Jan 2024 20:45 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/70409 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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