An investigation of the modulatory effects of empathic and autistic traits on emotional and facial motor responses during live social interactions

A close relationship between emotional contagion and spontaneous facial mimicry has been theoretically proposed and is supported by empirical data. Facial expressions are essential in terms of both emotional and motor synchrony. Previous studies have demonstrated that trait emotional empathy enhance...

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Published in:PloS one 2024-01, Vol.19 (1), p.e0290765-e0290765
Main Authors: Hsu, Chun-Ting, Sato, Wataru, Yoshikawa, Sakiko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Arousal
Autism
Autistic Disorder
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Communication
Diagnosis
Electromyography
Emotions
Empathy
Evaluation
Facial expression
Female
Humans
Individual differences
Interpersonal relations
Investigations
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Mimicry
Muscles
Quotients
Relay systems
Reputation management
Research and Analysis Methods
Smiling
Social aspects
Social behavior
Social Interaction
Social interactions
Social response
Social Sciences
Validity
Video
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Sato, Wataru
Yoshikawa, Sakiko
description A close relationship between emotional contagion and spontaneous facial mimicry has been theoretically proposed and is supported by empirical data. Facial expressions are essential in terms of both emotional and motor synchrony. Previous studies have demonstrated that trait emotional empathy enhanced spontaneous facial mimicry, but the relationship between autistic traits and spontaneous mimicry remained controversial. Moreover, previous studies presented faces that were static or videotaped, which may lack the "liveliness" of real-life social interactions. We addressed this limitation by using an image relay system to present live performances and pre-recorded videos of smiling or frowning dynamic facial expressions to 94 healthy female participants. We assessed their subjective experiential valence and arousal ratings to infer the amplitude of emotional contagion. We measured the electromyographic activities of the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles to estimate spontaneous facial mimicry. Individual differences measures included trait emotional empathy (empathic concern) and the autism-spectrum quotient. We did not find that live performances enhanced the modulatory effect of trait differences on emotional contagion or spontaneous facial mimicry. However, we found that a high trait empathic concern was associated with stronger emotional contagion and corrugator mimicry. We found no two-way interaction between the autism spectrum quotient and emotional condition, suggesting that autistic traits did not modulate emotional contagion or spontaneous facial mimicry. Our findings imply that previous findings regarding the relationship between emotional empathy and emotional contagion/spontaneous facial mimicry using videos and photos could be generalized to real-life interactions.
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subjects Analysis
Arousal
Autism
Autistic Disorder
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Communication
Diagnosis
Electromyography
Emotions
Empathy
Evaluation
Facial expression
Female
Humans
Individual differences
Interpersonal relations
Investigations
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Mimicry
Muscles
Quotients
Relay systems
Reputation management
Research and Analysis Methods
Smiling
Social aspects
Social behavior
Social Interaction
Social interactions
Social response
Social Sciences
Validity
Video
title An investigation of the modulatory effects of empathic and autistic traits on emotional and facial motor responses during live social interactions
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