Cited by 49Attachment and Relationship DynamicsEmotions and Moral BehaviorEvolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

The Face of Love: Spontaneous Accommodation as Social Emotion Regulation

Häfner, Michael, IJzerman, Hans·2011·Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Abstract

The present research investigated whether accommodation, typically formulated as the tendency to deliberately inhibit a destructive reaction in response to a partner’s destructive behavior, could also occur spontaneously. Supporting this notion, results of the first study revealed that participants respond to their partner’s angry face with a spontaneous smile, whereas strangers’ angry faces are mimicked and thus lead to a spontaneous frown. Importantly, the facial EMG data are moderated by participants’ daily interaction styles: People perceiving themselves in a communal relationship show spontaneous acts of accommodation, whereas this is not the case for people in exchange relationships. The moderation occurred in our first (spontaneous) and third (forced accommodation) studies. The results of the second study replicated the first study in that participants in communal relationships frowned less toward partner’s subliminally presented angry faces but more to their sad faces. The authors discuss their findings as spontaneous social emotion regulation.

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Crossref · 10.1177/0146167211415629

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  • Häfner and IJzerman (2011) found that participants spontaneously smiled in response to anger displays of their significant other.

    “Häfner and IJzerman (2011) found that participants spontaneously smiled in response to anger displays of their significant other (i.e., they “smiled away” the anger of the other).”

    From Existential threat and responses to emotional displays of ingroup and outgroup members (2023) · cites this paper as Häfner and IJzerman (2011)

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Authors
Häfner, M., & IJzerman, H.
Affiliations
  • Utrecht University (NL)
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
Venue
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Published
2011-07-21
Volume
37
Issue
12
Pages
1551-1563
ISSN
  • 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
  • 1552-7433
OpenAlex
W2165389632
Cited by
49
References
50
Citations by year
2025: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 9
FWCI
6.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
  • Research portal (Tilburg University) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
Keywords
accommodation, facial expressions, anger, facial mimicry, facial electromyography, interpersonal relationships, communal relationships, exchange relationships, subliminal priming
MeSH terms
Electromyography, Emotions, Facial Expression, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Love, Netherlands

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