Web-Based Sensitivity Training for Interacting with Facial Paralysis

Previous research has shown that observers tend to form inaccurate, negatively biased first impressions of people with facial paralysis (FP). This is likely to be due in part to limits which facial paralysis imposes upon the expression of information about emotional states. It has been hypothesised that this problem may be ameliorated by a training program designed to encourage people who will encounter individuals with FP to focus on other channels of expression rather than the face, e.g. hand gestures, body language, tone of voice and speech content. We tested this hypothesis in two web-based studies. In Study 1, participants in the Trained Condition received tips for understanding/interacting with individuals with FP, and practice in identifying emotions expressed through body language. Participants in the Untrained Condition received only general information about FP, and practice in identifying emotions expressed through facial expression. In the test phase, we compared the two groups’ perception of emotions expressed in videos of individuals with FP, as well as their recall of the content of those videos. The results show that attending to bodily cues and to speech rather than facial cues can improve social perception and reduce bias. Study 2 tested participants in the Trained group two months later. The results show that the effects of the training did not persist. Taken together, our findings support the hypothesis that even brief training in attending to non-facial cues when interacting with individuals with FP can improve social perception and reduce bias, but that these effects do not persist over longer time periods in the absence of further training.