The Many Faces of a Neutral Face: Head Tilt and Perception of Dominance and Emotion
Authors: Mignault A.1; Chaudhuri A.2
Source: Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Volume 27, Number 2, 2003 , pp. 111-132(22)
Publisher: Springer
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Abstract:
Based on the premise that human head tilt is homologous to animal dominance displays, we hypothesized that when a head is bowed, the face should be perceived as submissive, sad, displaying inferiority emotions (i.e., shame, embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, and respect) and, paradoxically, as contracting the zygomatic major muscle. Conversely, a raised head should be perceived as more dominant and displaying greater superiority emotions (i.e., contempt and pride). We conducted two experiments showing 3-D models of faces to 64 participants. The results confirmed our hypotheses and also showed that a raised head connotes happiness. In addition, we found a significant influence of the actors' sex on participants' perception, such as a bias towards perceiving stronger upward contraction of the mouth in female than male actors when the head is tilted. We discuss these findings within the context of evolution and social behavior.
Keywords: dominance; facial emotion displays; head angle; sex; smile
Language: English
Document Type: Research article
Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1; alain@ego.psych.mcgill.ca, http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/labs/cvl 2: Department of Psychology, McGill University
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