Stifle That Frown Expression; A Hot Chick Is Watching You
Christopher Philip
It’s no surprise that people react to emotion and this is reflected subconsciously through facial expressions. However, little researched has been done into exactly how people manage their expressions especially when they want to create specific impressions in others.
Researchers Dina Dosmukhambetova and Antony Manstead, Cardiff University, designed an experiment which tracked the facial expressions of men as they viewed different emotional video content.
Men were ostensibly told that they were either being observed by an attractive or unattractive female research assistant as they viewed short films including a horror, infants, and a neutral film. The aim of the study was to see if the men would modify their expressions differently based on whom was watching them to see if it would affect their facial expressions.
The researchers expected and found that when men viewed horror films they typically frown, but when they were told they were being observed by the attractive assistant, they frowned less often than when they were told they were being observed by an unattractive assistant. They also smiled more when viewing the infant video especially when they figured they were being observed by the attractive assistant over the unattractive assistant. The neutral video did not differentially affect the expressions of the men.
This led the researchers to conclude that men modify their facial expressions in order to suite the impressions they wish to create in women, particularly attractive women. This is referred to as “impression management.”
Previous research has shown that people report being happy more often in order to create likeability. On the other hand, people report being angry in order to influence another person’s decision. Women also express powerless emotions such as sadness and fear to improve social relations whereas men report feelings of powerful emotions such as anger and disappointment. Additionally power emotions have been shown to help men feel more in control, and this is a desirable trait to women.
In the current study, the men only managed their facial expressions significantly when they figured an attractive assistant was watching them. This suggests that men were trying to make themselves look better to the women in order to showcase their good qualities.
The overall conclusion to be taken from this study is that men use facial expressions in ways that they feel will create a desirable impression. While this is not particularly surprising, it does provide empirical data of the magnitude with which men will manipulate the impressions they create, in order to seem more valued as a potential suitor.
Image Credit: Graham Hellewell
Resources
Dosmukhambetova, Dina and Antony S. R. Manstead. Fear Attenuated and Affection Augmented: Male Self-Presentation in a Romantic Context. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2019. 36:135–147. DOI 10.1007/s10919-011-0126-1.