Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2010 - Volume 33, Issue 06  

Open Peer Commentary

How does perceiving eye direction modulate emotion recognition?

Laurence Contya1, Julie Grèzesa1 and David Sandera2a3

a1 Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, INSERM U960, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 75005 Paris, France. laurence.conty@ens.fr http://www.grezes.ens.fr/people.php?id=2 julie.grezes@ens.fr http://www.grezes.ens.fr/people.php?id=1

a2 Laboratory for the Study of Emotion Elicitation and Expression (E3 Lab), Department of Psychology, Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland

a3 Centre Interfacultaire en Sciences Affectives (CISA) – University of Geneva, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland. david.sander@unige.ch http://cms.unige.ch/fapse/EmotionLab/Sander.html

Abstract

Niedenthal et al. postulate that eye contact with the expresser of an emotion automatically initiates embodied simulation. Our commentary explores the generality of such an eye contact effect for emotions other than happiness. Based on the appraisal theory of emotion, we propose that embodied simulation may be reinforced by mutual or averted gaze as a function of emotional context.

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