Do facial expressions of emotion modulate one's decision to engage in an object handover task?

Abstract

This study investigated whether facial expressions of emotion influence willingness to engage in a simple object handover task. Participants (N = 30) viewed images varying in emotion (angry, happy, neutral, sad), sex (female and male), and race (Asian, Black, Hispanic, White), and rated their willingness to engage based on an instructed prompt for the action (give, take) and object (knife, spoon). A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed significant main effects of Emotion F(3, 29) = 24.65, p < 0.001, ηp² = 0.46, Sex F(1, 29) = 11.45, p = 0.002, ηp² = 0.28, Race F(3, 29) = 5.74, p = 0.003, ηp² = 0.17, Action F(1, 29) = 8.88, p = 0.006, ηp² = 0.23, and Object F(1, 29) = 32.14, p < 0.001, ηp² = 0.53. Holm-corrected post hoc comparisons showed that angry faces received significantly lower engagement ratings than all other emotional expressions (p < 0.001), and happy faces were rated significantly higher than sad and neutral expressions (p < 0.01). A significant Emotion X Action interaction, F(3, 87) = 3.64, p = 0.016, ηp² = 0.11, indicated that giving actions paired with happy or neutral expressions were rated more positively than taking actions (p < 0.05). The Emotion X Action X Object interaction was also significant F(3, 87) = 0.15, p < 0.001, ηp² = 0.01. Follow-up tests revealed highest engagement for the Happy Give Spoon combination (p < 0.001), and lowest for Angry Take Knife (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that facial expressions of emotion as well as social context modulate one’s decisions to engage in a sociomotor task.