Facial feedback effects on impression formation.

Two experiments were conducted to examine effects of facial expressions upon social cognitive processes in which the impression of another person is formed. In each experiment, 30 female college students were induced to display or conceal their facial reactions to a hypothetical target person whose behaviors were mildly hostile (Exp. 1) or mildly friendly (Exp. 2), or their facial expressions were not manipulated. Displaying the facial expressions shifted the impression into the congruent directions with hedonic values corresponding to the facial expressions. Concealing the facial expressions, however, did not influence impression formation. Also, the positive-negative asymmetry was observed in the facial feedback effects, that is, the negative facial expression had a stronger effect on social cognition than the positive one.