This investigation is testing the idea that congruity of facial expressions is related to enjoyment of social interactions

This investigation is testing the idea that congruity of facial expressions is related to enjoyment of social interactions. An observation method was used where two participants were asked to have a conversation about a topic chosen at random whilst their expressions were being monitored. After the conversation participants self-rated their enjoyment of the conversation and the results were coded and compared.24 undergraduates participated in this study (14 females and 10 males) and had an average age of 21.

5 years. Three independent raters were used to monitor the facial expressions of the participants.This investigation showed that there was no clear evidence to suggest that congruity of facial expressions is related to enjoyment of social interactions, as there was no strong correlation between the results. However taking into account the many methodological problems of the investigation it is possible that the results of this investigation are not reliable or accurate of 'real life'. Hence further investigation, with such methodological errors resolved, needs to take place.INVESTIGATING IF CONGRUITY OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS IS RELATED TO ENJOYMENT OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONSIn this experiment it was being investigated if congruity of facial expressions is related to the enjoyment of social interactions.

Facial expressions are an important tool in our ever day life in expressing emotion in our every day social interaction, and although there has been research into emotions and expressive congruency there has been little research about a relationship between the two particularly in a context of a real social interaction.Ohira and Kurono (1993) found that displaying facial expressions to a hypothetical target person whose behaviour was either hostile or friendly pushed the impression formed into congruent directions with the facial expression, whereas concealing a facial expression had no affect on impression formation.Similarly Thayer and Schiff (1969) showed that observer's judgements of the friendliness/hostility of an animated interaction were affected by facial expressions as well as the motion patterns of the 'individuals' in the interaction. Congruity of facial expressions produced more extreme judgements.This suggests that facial expressions do play an important part in impression formation, especially where congruity of facial expressions occurs.

From this we could infer that enjoyment of a social interaction could be affected by facial expressions in a similar way. It is possible that congruity of facial expressions (in a positive light) plays an important part in enjoyment of social interactions.Hence from the research mentioned above we will expect there to be a relationship between congruence of facial expressions and enjoyment of the conversation. It will be expected that when congruency of facial expressions is high that enjoyment on conversation will be either high or low (high if 'friendly' facial expressions are congruent and low if 'hostile' facial expressions are congruent).MethodParticipants24 undergraduates participated in this study.

They consisted of 14 females and 10 males with a mean age of 21.5 years.EquipmentThe equipment used consisted of 2 wall-mounted cameras with separate controls and monitors, visual and audio editing equipment and a television and video recorder.The video editing equipment used allowed for the recording to show both participants simultaneously in a split-screen mode. A digital timer was also present in the corner of the picture aiding the analysis.

ProcedureParticipants in this experiment were told of the filming procedure prior taking part and were asked to sign informed consent forms detailing the nature of the study.Two participants (unknown to each other) were asked to sit at a small table in the Observation suite facing each other. A video camera was focused on each of their faces in order to record facial expressions during their interaction. The two participants were given a topic selected randomly from a list including topics such as current social/political issues, sports and entertainment. The participants were asked to talk about their topic for five minutes and were left alone and filmed throughout the interaction.

The experimenter entered the room to indicate when the five minutes were over.After the conversation, the participants were asked to rate their own enjoyment of their conversation on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 would indicate no enjoyment and 10 would indicate the maximum enjoyment.CodingThree independent 'raters' examined the video footage and rated the congruity of facial expressions between participants during the conversation. Ratings were taken by a sampling method, every 15 seconds throughout the 5-minute video recording, and at each of these intervals a congruity score was given on a scale of 0 to 20 where 0 indicated no congruity and 20 indicated total congruity of expressions.

Observer ReliabilityObserver reliability was addressed as the three 'raters' were trained prior to the experiment; such training involved presenting 10 separate pairs of faces side by side and asking them to provide congruity scores for each pair. Inter-rater reliability was 89%.Data ReductionThe two enjoyment scores (one from each participant in the conversation) were averaged to give a single average enjoyment value for each conversation.The 20 data points per conversation that were obtained from examining the video footage were averaged to provide one numerical score per conversation.Each conversation hence has a single value for congruity, and a single value for enjoyment.

ResultsFrom the experiment it was found that there was little correlation between congruence of facial expressions between participants and their self-ratings of their enjoyment of the conversation.Scatter Graph of ResultsFigure 1. The relationship between congruity of facial expressions and enjoyment of a social interaction.As the scatter plot above shows, there is little correlation between the average congruity score and the average enjoyment score. Hence we can infer that there is little relationship between the enjoyment of a conversation and the congruity of facial expressions in the same conversation.

DiscussionThe findings of this study suggest that there is no relationship between facial congruity of expressions and enjoyment of a conversation. As there has been very little research into emotions and expressive congruity it is hard to say that our results are reliable and valid considering the many methodological problems this investigation had.Our results do not agree with our hypothesis or the findings on impression formation from Ohira ; Kurono and Thayer ; Schiff. This is suggesting that our methodological problems need to be addressed carefully.

Firstly, in this investigation it has not been taken into account the type of facial expressions that are congruent. A high score could be given but it is probable that the type of facial expression will affect the self-rated enjoyment score of the participant. For example, if both participants were displaying hostile, angry or even upset expressions, the enjoyment score is likely to be a lot lower than if both participants were displaying happier, smiling or laughing expressions. Hence from the start our results will not be able to give a true picture of the situation, which may explain the lack of correlation in our results.Similarly, the self-rated enjoyment scores will also affect the results in a negative manner as the enjoyment score from each participant has been averaged into one score. This is unfair, as one participant could have enjoyed the conversation whereas the partner participant could have hated every second of it.

If this was the case a score of about 5 could arise. Similarly if both participants fairly enjoyed the conversation a score of about 5 could arise here too. It is unfair to average the enjoyment scores like this, as we cannot obtain a true picture of the event, our results are severely distortedSecondly, the way the scores were coded and averaged cause a problem when addressing reliability and validity issues. The results have been reduced far too much, for example when looking at the score that the 'raters' decided upon. Although 20 data points were taken for each conversation they are averaged to give one score.

This simplifies the results immensely. It is impossible to average out 20 data points and gain one figure that totally depicts the results. For example if a data point of 10 is gained, this could mean that there was a tendency for congruity throughout the conversation, but it could also mean that the first half of the conversation had no congruity of expressions but the second half had complete congruity plus numerous other possibilities.It also has not been considered the case of gender differences in the 'conversation pairs'.

Enjoyment scores, and facial congruity of expressions may be affected by the gender of the 'partner'. Females may react differently when talking to other females than males, and vice versa.As the results haven't agreed with what we expected, the investigation could be repeated with the issues mentioned above addressed. A more complex study taking into account all congruity scores and enjoyment scores would be more suitable and would perhaps give a correlation between the two variables.

It might also be interesting to investigate if congruity of expressions means both participants enjoyed/disliked the conversation. It may appear that although a high congruity of expressions occurs, one participant may enjoy the conversation whereas another participant doesn't and was simply 'faking' their enjoyment when interacting with their partner participant.