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Scalar Ratings Of Contempt Expressions

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Abstract:

This article reports two studies examining the recognition of unilateral lip raise and tighten expressions as contempt using scalar ratings on multiple emotion categories. Study 1 demonstrated that American and Japanese observers see these expressions as contempt, that the Japanese had significantly higher recognition rates, and that this difference occurred because Americans gave the anger and disgust labels higher ratings than did the Japanese. Study 2 replicated the finding that Americans see the contempt expressions as contempt, and did so regardless of whether they rated the external display of the expression or made an attribution about the internal experience of the expressor. This study is the first to show that native English speakers judge the contempt expressions as contempt using this task, although much inconsistency in judgments of contempt remains unexplained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94132, USA

    David Matsumoto

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  1. David Matsumoto
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Correspondence to David Matsumoto.

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I thank Kathryn Vaughn and Manveen Dhindsa for their assistance in collecting the data reported in Study 2, Richard Chan for his assistance in data analysis, and Paul Ekman for his comments on a previous draft of this manuscript. I also thank Guillermo Campos, Elena Martinez, and Lupita Rodrigues for their assistance in the general laboratory program.

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Matsumoto, D. Scalar Ratings Of Contempt Expressions. J Nonverbal Behav 29, 91–104 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-005-2742-0

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