title: Walk to me when I smile, step back when I'm angry: emotional faces modulate whole-body approach-avoidance behaviors.
abstract: Facial expressions are potent social cues that can induce behavioral dispositions, such as approach-avoidance tendencies. We studied these tendencies by asking participants to make whole-body forward (approach) or backward (avoidance) steps on a force plate in response to the valence of social cues (happy or angry faces) under affect-congruent and incongruent mappings. Posturographic parameters of the steps related to automatic stimulus evaluation, step initiation (reaction time), and step execution were determined and analyzed as a function of stimulus valence and stimulus-response mapping. The main result was that participants needed more time to initiate a forward step towards an angry face than towards a smiling face (which is evidence of a congruency effect), but with backward steps, this difference failed to reach significance. We also found a reduction in spontaneous body sway prior to the step with the incongruent mapping. The results provide a crucial empirical link between theories of socially induced action tendencies and theories of postural control and suggest a motoric basis for socially guided motivated behavior.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute MOVE, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands. j.stins@fbw.vu.nl
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Stins
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Roelofs
authors.forename: Jody
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Villan
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kooijman
authors.forename: Muriel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hagenaars
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Beek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D016138:Walking