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All that meets the eye: The contribution of reward processing and pupil mimicry on pupillary reactions to facial trustworthiness

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Abstract

The present work investigates pupillary reactions induced by exposure to faces with different levels of trustworthiness. Participants’ (N = 69) pupillary changes were recorded while they viewed white male faces with a neutral expression varying on facial trustworthiness. Results suggest that reward processing and pupil mimicry are relevant mechanisms driving participants’ pupil reactions. However, when including both factors in one statistical model, pupil mimicry seems to be a stronger predictor than reward processing of participants’ pupil dilation. Results are discussed in light of pupillometry evidence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, “Sapienza”, Via dei Marsi, 78, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Althea Frisanco

  2. Center for Life Nano Science, Italian Institute of Technology, Rome, Italy

    Althea Frisanco

  3. IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy

    Althea Frisanco

  4. Psychology Department, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Marco Biella

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Milano - Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Marco Brambilla

  6. Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Mariska E. Kret

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  1. Althea Frisanco
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  2. Marco Biella
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Correspondence to Althea Frisanco.

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The study presented in the manuscript has been carried out in accordance with the ethical standards of the APA. Data and open materials are available on the Open Science Framework at the following link https://osf.io/s3z5k/. The used stimuli are not available as Terms of Use of the Chicago Face Database (Ma et al., 2015) prohibit redistribution.

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Frisanco, A., Biella, M., Brambilla, M. et al. All that meets the eye: The contribution of reward processing and pupil mimicry on pupillary reactions to facial trustworthiness. Curr Psychol 42, 11685–11692 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02486-w

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