The cues decoders use in attempting to differentiate emotion‐elicited and posed facial expressions

Abstract

Abstract Dynamic facial expressions, either posed or elicited by afectively evocative materials, were objectively scored to determine the movement cues and temporal parameters associated with the two types of expression. Subjects viewed these expressive episodes and rated each of them on a number of scales intended to assess perceived spontaneousness and deliberateness. Subsequent to viewing all stimuli, subjects reported the specfic cues that they felt they had used to discriminate spontaneous from deliberate expressions. The results reveal that (a) subjects were able to accurately report the cues they employed in the rating task and that (b) these cues were not always valid discriminators of posed and spontaneous expressions. Subjects were in fact relatively poor at identifying expressions of the two types and this low discrimination accuracy was found to be a function of the consistent use of these invalid cues. A measure of the level of perceived honest demeanour of the stimulus persons based on their neutral expressions was found to relate to perceivers accuracy in discriminating posed and spontaneous expressions.