When smiling back helps and scowling back hurts: individual differences in emotional mimicry are associated with self-reported interaction quality during conflict interactions

摘要

Conflicts or disagreements during which negative, antagonistic emotions are expressed are perceived as uncomfortable. By contrast, disagreements accompanied by positive, affiliative emotions are less detrimental to interaction quality. We assessed whether individual differences in emotional mimicry have differential effects on interaction quality during disagreements with negative emotions compared to disagreements with positive emotions. For this, participants talked with someone who disagreed with them in a controlled laboratory setting, while emotional mimicry was assessed via facial EMG. The interaction partner showed either an antagonistic or an affiliative demeanor during the interaction. Following the interaction, participants reported on perceived interaction quality. In line with the Emotional Mimicry in Context view (Hess and Fischer in Pers Social Psychol Rev 17:142-157, 2013), emotional mimicry decreased interaction quality when the person who disagreed showed an antagonistic demeanor but increased interaction quality when the person who disagreed showed an affiliative demeanor. Furthermore, implicit affiliation motivation predicted emotional mimicry regardless the context.