Judging Trustworthiness, Competence and Dominance from Multimodal Emotional Expressions

Abstract

It is well-established that facial physical resemblances to emotional expressions can be misattributed as enduring traits (Montepare & Dobish, 2003). However, faces are typically encountered in the presence of other cues such as bodies and voices. With only a few studies having examined the integration of multiple emotional cues in trait judgements, the present study aimed to address this gap by investigating how people make judgements of trustworthiness, competence, and dominance from dynamic audio-visual stimuli. Participants (N = 158) viewed 104 videos of two posers (male and female) posing four emotions (happy, sad, angry or fearful) and rated them on all three traits. The videos showed an isolated voice, face, or body, or voice-face-body pairings that were emotionally congruent (e.g. all three cues expressing happiness) or incongruent (e.g. two cues expressing happiness with the third expressing anger). The results demonstrated that trait intensities were impaired by the presence of the incongruent emotion. When viewing the emotionally incongruent audio-visual stimuli, the perceptions of traits were more likely to be informed by the emotion displayed via two cues. The influence of the incongruent emotion cue was also reported, such that the posers were rated as more trustworthy and competent when displaying a happy face, and more dominant when displaying an angry body or voice. Hence, the strength of the face, voice, and body varied according to the emotion displayed, and the trait being perceived. These findings suggest the importance of using whole-person multisensory stimuli when investigating trait impressions formation.