Emotions are Managed Through Facial Movements
In a groundbreaking study presented to the Society for Personal and Social Psychology in Las Vegas and set to be published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have provided evidence supporting the idea that facial expressions can influence one's ability to comprehend written language related to emotions.
The study, led by Ph.D. candidate in psychology David Havas, delves into the realm of embodied cognition, a theory that proposes all cognitive processes, including abstract ones, are rooted in basic bodily processes of perception, action, and emotion.
Participants in the study, totalling 40 individuals, were treated with Botox to deactivate muscles in the forehead that cause frowning. They were then asked to read written statements, before and two weeks after the Botox treatment.
The results showed no change in the time needed to understand happy sentences. However, after Botox treatment, subjects took more time to read angry and sad sentences. This finding challenges the traditional view that language is a very high-level, abstract process divorced from more primitive processes like action, perception, and emotion.
The study's findings support the psychological hypothesis of "embodied cognition", a theory that links two seemingly separate mental functions, according to Arthur Glenberg, Havas's advisor. Glenberg suggests that slight delays in reacting to emotional cues in conversation could signal to others that understanding or empathy may be lacking.
The use of Botox to test how making facial expressions affect emotional centers in the brain was pioneered by Andreas Hennenlotter of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany. The long-standing idea in psychology, called the facial feedback hypothesis, that is relevant to this study, was first suggested by Charles Darwin, who proposed that the peripheral expression of emotion is a part of the emotion itself.
The study's findings could potentially have a snowball effect, according to Havas, but the outcome could also be positive. Arthur Glenberg believes the study's findings may have profound implications for cosmetic surgery, suggesting that altering facial expressions could impact one's ability to understand and process emotional language.
The embodied cognition hypothesis has roots in evolutionary theory, suggesting that thought processes, like emotions, are refined through evolution to support survival and reproduction. The Havas study's findings further solidify this theory, demonstrating that language understanding can be hindered when peripheral bodily mechanisms are interrupted.
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