Although cats’ popularity as pets rivals that of dogs, cats are little studied, and people's abilities to read this apparently ‘inscrutable’ species have attracted negligible research. To determine whether people can identify feline emotions from cats’ faces, participants (n = 6,329) each viewed 20 video clips of cats in carefully operationalised positively (n =10) or negatively valenced states (n = 10) (cross-factored with low and high activity levels). Obvious cues (eg open mouths or fully retracted ears) were eliminated. Participants’ average scores were low (11.85/20 correct), but overall above chance; furthermore, 13% of participants were individually significantly successful at identifying the valence of cats’ states (scoring ≥ 15/20 correct). Women were more successful at this task than men, and younger participants more successful than older, as were participants with professional feline (eg veterinary) experience. In contrast, personal contact with cats (eg pet-owning) had little effect. Cats in positive states were most likely to be correctly identified, particularly if active rather than inactive. People can thus infer cats’ affective states from subtle aspects of their facial expressions (although most find this challenging); and some individuals are very good at doing so. Understanding where such abilities come from, and precisely how cats’ expressions change with affective state, could potentially help pet owners, animal care staff and veterinarians optimise feline care and welfare.

In social interaction, the facial expression of an opponent contains information that may influence the interaction. We asked whether facial expression affects decision-making in the ultimatum game. In this two-person game, the proposer divides a sum of money into two parts, one for each player, and then the responder decides whether to accept the offer or reject it. Rejection means that neither player gets any money. Results of a large-sample study support our hypothesis that offers from proposers with a smiling facial expression are more often accepted, compared to a neutral facial expression. Moreover, we found lower acceptance rates for offers from proposers with an angry facial expression.

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals has received and continues to receive much attention from emotion researchers and behavioural scientists. However, the common misconception that Darwin advocated for the universality of emotional reactions has led to a host of unfounded and discredited claims promoted by ‘body language experts’ on both traditional and social media. These ‘experts’ receive unparalleled public attention. Thus, rather than being presented with empirically supported findings on non-verbal behaviour, the public is exposed to ‘body language analysis’ of celebrities, politicians and defendants in criminal trials. In this perspective piece, we address the misinformation surrounding non-verbal behaviour. We also discuss the nature and scope of statements from body language experts, unpacking the claims of the most viewed YouTube video by a body language expert, comparing these claims with actual research findings, and giving specific attention to the implications for the justice system. We explain how body language experts use (and misuse) Darwin's legacy and conclude with a call for researchers to unite their voices and work towards stopping the spread of misinformation about non-verbal behaviour.

Several empirical studies have linked political candidates’ electoral success to their physical appearance. We reexamine the effects of candidates’ physical attractiveness by taking into account emotional facial expressions as measured by automated facial recognition software. The analysis is based on an observational case study of candidate characteristics in the 2017 German federal election. Using hierarchical regression modeling and controlling for candidates’ displays of happiness, consistent effects of physical attractiveness remain. The results suggest that a potential interaction effect between displays of happiness and attractiveness positively affects vote shares. The study emphasizes the importance of considering emotional expressions when analyzing the impact of candidate appearance on electoral outcomes.

Current computerized tools allow detailed exploration of the structure and functioning of the “black box,” i.e., human cognitive and affective systems as well as thought. This technology was used to study the visual perception of facially expressed emotions. Morphological transition from one canonical emotion to another led to the creation of a continuum of intermediary pictures, and the identification of perceived emotions by 65 normal subjects was measured. We call this application “MARIE” (in French: Méthode d’Analyse et de Recherche de l’Intégration des Émotions; Method of Study and Analysis of Integration of Emotions). Our study examined the relationship between the quantitative modification of the continuum and the quantitative variation of the responses. Standardization of graphs led to the assessment of the two parameters of a Laplace-Gauss curve, i.e., mean and standard deviation. It is argued that such a tool could be very useful in the clinical assessment of the emotional state of subjects and/or of patients.

The study examined the perception of facial expressions of different emotional intensities in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) subtypes. Results showed that the High Risk Assessment and Checking subtype was more sensitive in perceiving the emotions fear and happiness. This suggests that altered affective processing may underlie the clinical manifestation of OCD.

Emotional faces are commonly used as stimuli in a wide number of research fields. The present study provides values of 198 pictures from one of the amplest available face databases, the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF). We used a new validation strategy that consisted of presenting pairs of faces which included an emotional face (i.e., angry, happy, sad) and its corresponding neutral face from the same model. This design allowed participants to keep a comparison face (i.e., neutral) as a constant anchor point to evaluate parameters on each emotional expression presented. Raters were asked to judge both the prototypicality of the emotional expressions (i.e., the degree to which they represent their corresponding emotional prototypes) as well as their emotional intensity. We finally discuss the potential advantages of this anchor-point method as a system to elicit judgments on facial emotional expressions.

We investigated facial expressivity in 19 people with Parkinson's disease (PD; 14 men and 5 women) and 26 healthy controls (13 men and 13 women). Participants engaged in experimental situations that were designed to evoke emotional facial expressions, including watching video clips and holding conversations, and were asked to pose emotions and imitate nonemotional facial movements. Expressivity was measured with subjective rating scales, objective facial measurements (Facial Action Coding System), and self-report questionnaires. As expected, PD participants showed reduced spontaneous facial expressivity across experimental situations. PD participants also had more difficulty than controls posing emotional expressions and imitating nonemotional facial movements. Despite these difficulties, however, PD participants' overall level of expressivity was still tied to emotional experience and social context. (JINS, 2004, 10, 521–535.)

The effects of stimulus intensity, duration, and risetime on the autonomic and behavioral components of orienting, startle, and defense responses were investigated. Six groups of 10 students were presented with 15 white noise stimuli at either 60 or 100 dB, with controlled risetimes of either 5 or 200 ms, and at stimulus durations of 1 or 5 s (1 s only in the case of the 60-dB groups). A dishabituation stimulus consisting of a 1000 Hz tone was also presented. Measures consisted of skin conductance and heart rate, together with ratings of facial expressions and upper torso movement obtained using video recording. Increased intensity resulted in greater amplitudes and frequencies of electrodermal and behavioral responses, and a change from cardiac deceleration to acceleration. Faster risetimes elicited larger electrodermal responses, greater frequencies of eye-blinks, head and body movements, and larger cardiac accelerations. The effects of duration for the 100-dB stimuli were less clear-cut. Overall, the results are discussed in relation to the differentiation of orienting, startle, and defense responses.