Modulation of facial reactions to avatar emotional faces by nonconscious competition priming |
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| Authors: | Peter Weyers reas Mühlberger Anja Kund Ursula Hess and Paul Pauli |
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| Institution: | Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany;
Department of Psychology, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal, Canada |
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| Abstract: | To investigate whether subliminally priming for competition influences facial reactions to facial emotional displays, 49 participants were either subliminally competition primed or neutrally primed. Thereafter, they viewed computer generated avatar faces with happy, neutral, and sad expressions while Corrugator supercilii and Zygomaticus major reactions were recorded. Results revealed facial mimicry to happy and sad faces in the neutrally primed group but not the competition primed group. Furthermore, subliminal competition priming enhanced Corrugator supercilii activity after an initial relaxation while viewing happy faces. An impression formation task revealed counter empathic effects confirming successful competition priming. Overall, results indicate that nonconscious processes influence a presumably nonconscious behavior. |
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| Keywords: | Emotion Facial expression Subliminal priming Competition Facial EMG |
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