Virtual friend or threat? The effects of facial expression and gaze interaction on psychophysiological responses and emotional experience

TLDR

The study examined how facial expression, gaze interaction, and gender affect attention, physiological arousal, facial muscle responses, and emotional experience during simulated social interactions. Participants viewed animated virtual characters differing in gender, gaze interaction, and facial expression while researchers recorded facial EMG, fixation duration, pupil size, and subjective experience. Rapid facial reactions more clearly distinguished happy from angry expressions during mutual eye contact, indicating they reflect emotional responses rather than mere motor activity, and eye‑movement data showed longer fixations to angry and neutral faces than to happy faces, suggesting attention is preferentially directed toward potential threat cues.

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of facial expression, gaze interaction, and gender on attention allocation, physiological arousal, facial muscle responses, and emotional experience in simulated social interactions. Participants viewed animated virtual characters varying in terms of gender, gaze interaction, and facial expression. We recorded facial EMG, fixation duration, pupil size, and subjective experience. Subject's rapid facial reactions (RFRs) differentiated more clearly between the character's happy and angry expression in the condition of mutual eye-to-eye contact. This finding provides evidence for the idea that RFRs are not simply motor responses, but part of an emotional reaction. Eye movement data showed that fixations were longer in response to both angry and neutral faces than to happy faces, thereby suggesting that attention is preferentially allocated to cues indicating potential threat during social interaction.