The influence of facial expression at perceptual threshold on electrodermal activity and social comfort distance
Open accessAbstract
Interpersonal distance, an essential component of social interaction, is modulated by the emotion conveyed by others and associated physiological response. However, in modern societies with overcrowded and hyperstimulating environments, we can only surreptitiously glimpse the faces of others in order to quickly make behavioral adjustments. How this impacts social interactions is not yet well understood. In the present study, we investigated this issue by testing whether facial expressions that are difficult to identify modify the physiological response (Electrodermal Activity, EDA) and subsequent judgment of interpersonal comfort distance. We recorded participants’ EDA while they provided comfort judgments to interpersonal distances with a Point‐Light Walker (PLW). The PLW, with an emotionally neutral gait, moved toward and crossed participants at various distances after the latter were exposed to a negative (anger), positive (happiness) or neutral facial expression presented at the perceptual threshold. Bayesian analyses of the data revealed an increase versus decrease of interpersonal comfort distance with the PLW depending on the negative versus positive emotional valence of the facial expression. They also showed an increase in EDA when the approaching PLW violated interpersonal comfort distance after participants were exposed to an angry facial expression. These effects correlated with the subjective assessment of the arousal of facial expressions. Thus, previous exposure to barely visible facial expressions can alter the representation of social comfort space and the physiological response associated with a violation of interpersonal comfort distances, depending on the valence and arousal of the emotional social stimuli.
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Reachability distance increased with angry emotional faces and avatars tagged with immoral statements.
“This distance increased with angry emotional faces (Cartaud et al., 2018(Cartaud et al., , 2020) ) and avatars that were tagged with immoral statements”
From The Peripersonal Space in a social world (2021) · cites this paper as Cartaud et al., 2020
The Abstract and Discussion report that angry facial expressions increased interpersonal comfort distance, supporting the angry-face part of the citation. The study measured comfort judgments about an approaching point-light walker, not reachability distance. The citation follows the angry-face clause; the later clause about avatars tagged with immoral statements is not attributed to this paper. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredElectrodermal activity increased in response to approaching angry faces.
“Electrodermal activity also increased in response to approaching angry faces”
From The Peripersonal Space in a social world (2021) · cites this paper as Cartaud et al, 2020
The Discussion reports increased electrodermal activity after exposure to an angry face, but only when an approaching point-light walker violated the participant’s interpersonal comfort space. The claim omits that condition and describes the angry face itself as approaching; in the study, the face was shown beforehand and the walker approached. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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The Peripersonal Space in a social world
Bogdanova, O. V., Bogdanov, V. B., Dureux, A., Farnè, A., & Hadj-Bouziane, F. (2021) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2021.05.005 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
“They were also influenced by the others' attributes: their facial expressions (Cartaud et al, 2018, 2020; Ruggiero et al., 2017), the judgements that can be attributed to them such as morality (Iachini, Pagliaro, & Ruggiero, 2015), as well as age and sex (Iachini et al., 2016; Iachini, Ruggiero, et…”
Background
- Authors
- Cartaud, A., Ott, L., Iachini, T., Honoré, J., & Coello, Y.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Coello, Yann
- Venue
- Psychophysiology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2020-05-21
- Volume
- 57
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e13600-e13600
- ISSN
- 0048-5772 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8986
- OpenAlex
- W3027280960
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 2.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hal.science
- Licence
- Locations
- Psychophysiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Regional Development Fund (SCV‐IrDIVE)
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR‐11‐EQPX‐0023)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Keywords
- interpersonal distance, facial expression perception, electrodermal activity, emotional valence, arousal, point-light walker
- MeSH terms
- Facial Recognition, Social Interaction, Anger, Bayes Theorem, Facial Expression, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Happiness, Humans, Male, Personal Space, Sensory Thresholds, Young Adult
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