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The influence of emotion type, social value orientation and processing focus on approach-avoidance tendencies to negative dynamic facial expressions

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Abstract

Facial expressions of anger and fear have been seen to elicit avoidance behavior in the perceiver due to their negative valence. However, recent research uncovered discrepancies regarding these immediate motivational implications of fear and anger, suggesting that not all negative emotions trigger avoidance to a comparable extent. To clarify those discrepancies, we considered recent theoretical and methodological advances, and investigated the role of social preferences and processing focus on approach-avoidance tendencies (AAT) to negative facial expressions. We exposed participants to dynamic facial expressions of anger, disgust, fear, or sadness, while they processed either the emotional expression or the gender of the faces. AATs were assessed by reaction times of lever movements, and by posture changes via head-tracking. We found that—relative to angry faces-, fearful and sad faces triggered more approach, with a larger difference between fear and anger in prosocial compared to individualistic participants. Interestingly, these findings are in line with a recently developed concern hypothesis, suggesting that—relative to other negative expressions—expressions of distress may facilitate approach, especially in participants with prosocial preferences.

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Notes

  1. The concept of SVO refers to preferences for particular patterns of outcomes for the self and others by focusing on a category typology of prosocials (maximizing outcomes for the self and others) vs. individualism (maximizing outcomes for the self with little or no regard for others’ outcomes). It is therefore theoretically manifest to separate participants into separate groups based on their tendency to maximize joint outcome (prosocial) vs. own outcome (individualist) (see Murphy et al. 2011). Individual subjects’ scores can be diminished to the categorical level following this scheme: Altruism: SVO > 57.15. Prosociality: 22.45 < SVO < 57.15. Individualism:  −12.04 < SVO < 22.45. Competitiveness: SVO < −12.04.

  2. Yet, in the HT procedure too, emotion affected AATs only in the emotional processing condition. No significant effects of emotion could be found when analyzing the data from the non-emotional condition only.

  3. Separate LMMs on the data of the lever procedure reveal a significant effect of processing condition for each of the 4 emotions.

  4. However, given this explanation, one would also expect a significant interaction of processing focus and emotion in the HT procedure, because participants in the emotional processing condition were asked to count the occurrence of 2 categories (emotions) but only one category (e.g., “male”) was relevant in the non-emotional processing condition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Berlin School of Mind & Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Laura Kaltwasser & Werner Sommer

  2. School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK

    Kerry Moore

  3. Institut für Psychologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    André Weinreich & Werner Sommer

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  1. Laura Kaltwasser
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  4. Werner Sommer
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Correspondence to Laura Kaltwasser.

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Kaltwasser, L., Moore, K., Weinreich, A. et al. The influence of emotion type, social value orientation and processing focus on approach-avoidance tendencies to negative dynamic facial expressions. Motiv Emot 41, 532–544 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-017-9624-8

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