Exerting control: the grammatical meaning of facial displays in signed languages

Signed languages employ finely articulated facial and head displays to express grammatical meanings such as mood and modality, complex propositions (conditionals, causal relations, complementation), information structure (topic, focus), assertions, content and yes/no questions, imperatives, and miratives. In this paper we examine two facial displays: an upper face display in which the eyebrows are pulled together called brow furrow, and a lower face display in which the corners of the mouth are turned down into a distinctive configuration that resembles a frown or upside-down U-shape. Our analysis employs Cognitive Grammar, specifically the control cycle and its manifestation in effective control and epistemic control. Our claim is that effective and epistemic control are associated with embodied actions. Prototypical physical effective control requires effortful activity and the forceful exertion of energy and is commonly correlated with upper face activity, often called the “face of effort.” The lower face display has been shown to be associated with epistemic indetermination, uncertainty, doubt, obviousness, and skepticism. We demonstrate that the control cycle unifies the diverse grammatical functions expressed by each facial display within a language, and that they express similar functions across a wide range of signed languages.

Signs of #self: a Peircean semiotic framework for theorizing self-(re) presentations on Instagram

Performances of self on social media are mediated via platform interfaces and social rituals while dramaturgical or theatrical perspectives of frontstage/backstage identity are frequently drawn upon in scholarship. However, emphasis on face and self-portraiture tends to background other forms of representation exhibiting objects, places and the various people that could be viewed as facets of the extended or disembodied self. In this article, Instagram is taken as a case to illustrate self-(re)presentations, beyond icons or selfies (the popular term for photographic self-portraiture), to include the symbols and indexical signs of subjectification. To this purpose, the author draws on the semiotic philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) in order to develop an analytic table of sign correlates. The Peircean sign doctrine is applied to systematically analyse observable elements as well as to consider the routine, abstract and conceptual sign phenomena constituting meanings in an interpreter’s mind. The analytic framework helps to unravel a series of densely stitched compound-signs, interweaving Instagrammers’ self-(re)presentations. Importantly, the sign typology does not dispense with performative ontologies entirely but suggests that signs of self cannot necessarily be removed ‘backstage’. Conversely, considering self-(re)presentations, beyond facial displays, is fruitful for theorizing what is shown, inferred as well as obscured. In turn, this illuminates self-(re)presentations orchestrated within broader sociomaterial constructs and the symphony of signs.

Sorry, Not Sorry: Effects of Different Types of Apologies and Self-Monitoring on Non-verbal Behaviors

This study examines the effects of different types of apologies and individual differences in self-monitoring on non-verbal apology behaviors involving a server apologizing to a customer. Apologies divide into sincere apologies that reflect genuine recognition of fault, and instrumental apologies, made for achieving a personal goal such as avoiding punishment or rejection by others. Self-monitoring (public-performing and other-directedness) were also examined. Fifty-three female undergraduate students participated in the experiment. Participants were assigned randomly to either a sincere apology condition or an instrumental apology condition. They watched the film clip of the communication between a customer and server and then role-played how they would apologize if they were the server. Participants’ non-verbal behavior during the role-play was videotaped. The results showed an interaction between the apology condition and self-monitoring on non-verbal behaviors. When public-performing was low, gaze avoidance was more likely to occur with a sincere apology than an instrumental apology. There was no difference when the public-performing was high. Facial displays of apology were apparent in the instrumental apology compared to the sincere apology. This tendency became more conspicuous with increased public-performing. Our results indicated that the higher the public-performing, the more participants tried to convey the feeling of apology by combining a direct gaze and facial displays in an instrumental apology. On the other hand, results suggest that lower levels of public-performing elicited less immediacy in offering a sincere apology. Further studies are needed to determine whether these results apply to other conflict resolution situations.

Gender, Candidate Emotional Expression, and Voter Reactions During Televised Debates

Voters evaluate politicians not just by what they say, but also how they say it, via facial displays of emotions and vocal pitch. Candidate characteristics can shape how leaders use—and how voters react to—nonverbal cues. Drawing on role congruity expectations, we study how the use of and reactions to facial, vocal, and textual communication in political debates varies by candidate gender. Relying on full-length videos of four German federal election debates (2005–2017) and a minor party debate, we use video, audio, and text data to measure candidate facial displays of emotion, vocal pitch, and speech sentiment. Consistent with our expectations, Angela Merkel expresses less anger than her male opponents, but she is just as emotive in other respects. Combining these measures of emotional expression with continuous responses recorded by live audiences, we find that voters punish Merkel for anger displays and reward her happiness and general emotional displays.

Expression Authenticity: The Role of Genuine and Deliberate Displays in Emotion Perception

People dedicate significant attention to others’ facial expressions and to deciphering their meaning. Hence, knowing whether such expressions are genuine or deliberate is important. Early research proposed that authenticity could be discerned based on reliable facial muscle activations unique to genuine emotional experiences that are impossible to produce voluntarily. With an increasing body of research, such claims may no longer hold up to empirical scrutiny. In this article, expression authenticity is considered within the context of senders’ ability to produce convincing facial displays that resemble genuine affect and human decoders’ judgments of expression authenticity. This includes a discussion of spontaneous vs. posed expressions, as well as appearance- vs. elicitation-based approaches for defining emotion recognition accuracy. We further expand on the functional role of facial displays as neurophysiological states and communicative signals, thereby drawing upon the encoding-decoding and affect-induction perspectives of emotion expressions. Theoretical and methodological issues are addressed with the aim to instigate greater conceptual and operational clarity in future investigations of expression authenticity.

Gender, Candidate Emotional Expression, and Voter Reactions During Televised Debates

Voters evaluate politicians not just by what they say, but also how they say it, via facial displays of emotions and vocal pitch. Candidate characteristics can shape how leaders use – and how voters react to – nonverbal cues. Drawing on role congruity expectations, we focus on how gender shapes the use of and reactions to facial, voice, and textual communication in political debates. Using full-length debate videos from four German national elections (2005–2017) and a minor debate in 2017, we employ computer vision, machine learning, and text analysis to extract facial displays of emotion, vocal pitch, and speech sentiment. Consistent with our expectations, Angela Merkel expresses less anger and is less emotive than her male opponents. We combine second-by-second candidate emotions data with continuous responses recorded by live audiences. We find that voters punish Merkel for anger displays and reward her happiness and general emotional displays.

Reading Expression

As early as the 1830s, Darwin nominated the study of non-verbal expression as the most convincing way to demonstrate that human agency had animal origins. His book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), offers us the best point of access to his human psychology. Central to its approach is interdependency. While the language which frames Expression has proved ambiguous, its overarching argument, and the five methods of research it exploits, forge a strong link between facial displays and the ways they are read or recognized by other people. His book argues that expressions themselves have no evolutionary purpose—they are not designed to communicate, or to reveal inner emotional states. It proposes three principles which have governed such evolution—none of which depend on natural selection. Being non-communicative, any significance expressions have comes from the parts they have played in the dramas of social life. Expression would today be said to proffer an ‘externalist’ or ‘situational’ account of the relations between expressions and emotions. The book also bears on contemporary debates about the universality of expressions and emotions.