The portrait of Dorian Gray: spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic marker
Crucial changes in the dynamical development of a facial display can characterize and distinguish spontaneous and posed facial expressions, a topic that has been poorly investigated. To assess spontaneous expressions of happiness, we presented video clips extracted from comedies showing hilarious sc...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1546418/full |
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| author | Elisa Straulino Elisa Straulino Cristina Scarpazza Cristina Scarpazza Alessio Miolla Andrea Spoto Sonia Betti Luisa Sartori Luisa Sartori |
| author_facet | Elisa Straulino Elisa Straulino Cristina Scarpazza Cristina Scarpazza Alessio Miolla Andrea Spoto Sonia Betti Luisa Sartori Luisa Sartori |
| author_sort | Elisa Straulino |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Crucial changes in the dynamical development of a facial display can characterize and distinguish spontaneous and posed facial expressions, a topic that has been poorly investigated. To assess spontaneous expressions of happiness, we presented video clips extracted from comedies showing hilarious scenes (Emotional Induction, Experiment 1) or videoclips showing smiling faces (Motor Contagion, Experiment 2). To induce posed expressions, we adopted the classic image of posed happiness from Ekman’s dataset. The results showed high consistency for spontaneous expressions of happiness, characterized by reduced amplitude, speed and deceleration peaks of the smile and lower eyebrow distance compared to posed expressions, for both methods of emotion induction. Overall, we demonstrated that high-definition 3-D kinematics of dynamic facial movements together with FACS coding can provide relevant details to characterize the syntax of dynamic facial displays, showing that spontaneous expression of happiness is an individual fingerprint, unaltered by mood induction procedures. However, spontaneous smiling varied at the individual level, influenced by participants’ predisposition to cognitively empathize with the movie protagonist. These findings are significant for emotion research, which has largely overlooked the impact of mood induction methods and their relationship with interindividual variability. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5740bf8796a248e9a2d22eb40d5eebda |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj-art-5740bf8796a248e9a2d22eb40d5eebda2025-08-20T02:48:16ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782025-07-011610.3389/fpsyg.2025.15464181546418The portrait of Dorian Gray: spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic markerElisa Straulino0Elisa Straulino1Cristina Scarpazza2Cristina Scarpazza3Alessio Miolla4Andrea Spoto5Sonia Betti6Luisa Sartori7Luisa Sartori8Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyPadova Neuroscience Center, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyDepartment of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyTranslational Neuroimaging and Cognitive Lab, IRCCS S. Camillo Hospital, Venice, ItalyDepartment of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyDepartment of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyDepartment of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyDepartment of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyPadova Neuroscience Center, University of Padua, Padua, ItalyCrucial changes in the dynamical development of a facial display can characterize and distinguish spontaneous and posed facial expressions, a topic that has been poorly investigated. To assess spontaneous expressions of happiness, we presented video clips extracted from comedies showing hilarious scenes (Emotional Induction, Experiment 1) or videoclips showing smiling faces (Motor Contagion, Experiment 2). To induce posed expressions, we adopted the classic image of posed happiness from Ekman’s dataset. The results showed high consistency for spontaneous expressions of happiness, characterized by reduced amplitude, speed and deceleration peaks of the smile and lower eyebrow distance compared to posed expressions, for both methods of emotion induction. Overall, we demonstrated that high-definition 3-D kinematics of dynamic facial movements together with FACS coding can provide relevant details to characterize the syntax of dynamic facial displays, showing that spontaneous expression of happiness is an individual fingerprint, unaltered by mood induction procedures. However, spontaneous smiling varied at the individual level, influenced by participants’ predisposition to cognitively empathize with the movie protagonist. These findings are significant for emotion research, which has largely overlooked the impact of mood induction methods and their relationship with interindividual variability.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1546418/fullemotion expressionskinematicshappinessemotional inductionmotor contagion |
| spellingShingle | Elisa Straulino Elisa Straulino Cristina Scarpazza Cristina Scarpazza Alessio Miolla Andrea Spoto Sonia Betti Luisa Sartori Luisa Sartori The portrait of Dorian Gray: spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic marker Frontiers in Psychology emotion expressions kinematics happiness emotional induction motor contagion |
| title | The portrait of Dorian Gray: spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic marker |
| title_full | The portrait of Dorian Gray: spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic marker |
| title_fullStr | The portrait of Dorian Gray: spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic marker |
| title_full_unstemmed | The portrait of Dorian Gray: spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic marker |
| title_short | The portrait of Dorian Gray: spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic marker |
| title_sort | portrait of dorian gray spontaneous expression of happiness is an invariant kinematic marker |
| topic | emotion expressions kinematics happiness emotional induction motor contagion |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1546418/full |
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