Measuring Facial Expression and Emotional Experience under Diverse Social Context in a Negative Emotional Setting

This paper presents an empirical study of the social context effect on facial expressions in a negative emotional setting. In this study participants watched sadness-inducing film clips under different social context (alone, with stranger or with friend) and their facial expressions were coded with the Observer XT using the Facial Expression Coding System (FACES; [1]). According to Fridlund’s Behavioral Ecology View [2], the presence of an intimate social interactant may facilitate negative expression. Yet the assessment and evaluation of facial behavior and selfreports of emotion revealed that negative expression did not vary as a function of sociality whereas positive expression was facilitated with the presence of a friend despite the negative valence of the stimuli. Furthermore participants reported being less sad in the presence of a friend. The finding may imply that the effect of the social context may show a different pattern regarding negative and positive facial expression in different emotional settings.