ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

›› 1993, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (03): 55-61.

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AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF EXAMINING “FACIAL FEEDBACK HYPOTHESIS”

Sun Shaobang;Meng Zhaolan Department of Psychology, Peking University   

  • Published:1993-09-25 Online:1993-09-25

Abstract: Through manipulating the subjects' facial expressions in the way of"muscleby muscle" and filling out the emotional differentiation scalt, the experimentwas carried out to examine "Facial Feedback Hypothesis" which considers thatfacial expressions can induce experiences corresponding to them. The resultsshowed: (1) Anger expression increased anger experience significantly. (2) Thefeedback of expressions influencing experiences had two characteristics: Onekind of emotional facial expression not only increased the intensity of the co-rresponding experience, but also increased those experiences in the samedirection as it was in terms of "positive-negtive" dimension, while it decreasedthose experiences in the opposite direction. (3) The feedback effect of facialexpressions could occur without "self-perception" as a medium variable.

Key words: muscle by muscle, expressions, feedback, self- perception