Abstract
In this study we investigated how perception of the eye expression in a face is influenced by the mouth expression, even when
only the eyes are directly looked at. The same eyes appeared in a face with either an incongruent smiling, angry, or sad mouth,
a congruent mouth, or no mouth. Attention was directed to the eyes by means of cueing and there were no fixations on the mouth.
Participants evaluated whether the eyes were happy (or angry, or sad) or not. Results indicated that the smile biased the
evaluation of the eyes towards happiness to a greater extent than an angry or a sad mouth did towards anger or sadness. The
smiling mouth was also more visually salient than the angry and the sad mouths. We conclude that the role of the eyes as a
“window” to a person’s emotional and motivational state is constrained and distorted by the configural projection of an expressive
mouth, and that this effect is enhanced by the high visual saliency of the smile.
only the eyes are directly looked at. The same eyes appeared in a face with either an incongruent smiling, angry, or sad mouth,
a congruent mouth, or no mouth. Attention was directed to the eyes by means of cueing and there were no fixations on the mouth.
Participants evaluated whether the eyes were happy (or angry, or sad) or not. Results indicated that the smile biased the
evaluation of the eyes towards happiness to a greater extent than an angry or a sad mouth did towards anger or sadness. The
smiling mouth was also more visually salient than the angry and the sad mouths. We conclude that the role of the eyes as a
“window” to a person’s emotional and motivational state is constrained and distorted by the configural projection of an expressive
mouth, and that this effect is enhanced by the high visual saliency of the smile.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Category Original Paper
- Pages 1-10
- DOI 10.1007/s11031-012-9298-1
- Authors
- Manuel G. Calvo, Department of Cognitive Psychology, University of La Laguna, 38205 Tenerife, Spain
- Andrés Fernández-Martín, Department of Cognitive Psychology, University of La Laguna, 38205 Tenerife, Spain
- Journal Motivation and Emotion
- Online ISSN 1573-6644
- Print ISSN 0146-7239