Subtle Positive Facial Expression Recognition is Enhanced by Comedy Viewing: Moderating Roles of Empathy and Depression
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Recognising subtle signs of positive emotion is essential for trust, cooperation, and social connection. However, everyday barriers—such as face masks—can hinder this ability. We tested whether a brief positive mood induction via comedy viewing could enhance recognition of subtle smiles, and whether this depended on mask-wearing and individual traits. Fifty-three adults (22 males, 31 females) completed a within-subject experiment, watching either a comedy performance or a neutral weather broadcast, then judging the valence of morphed facial expressions (10–30% intensity) shown with or without a mask. Comedy viewing significantly increased positive mood (POMS2-BF VA: p < .001, r = .43) and reduced negative mood (e.g., TA: p = .004, r = .69). Recognition accuracy for subtle positive expressions improved after comedy for unmasked faces (p = .0016, r = .09) but not for masked faces (p = .27), where performance remained at chance. Greater perspective-taking and lower depressive mood predicted greater improvement. Even participants with higher depressive symptoms showed measurable gains. These results demonstrate that a short, enjoyable activity—watching comedy—can sharpen attunement to others’ positive emotions, but only when key facial cues are visible, highlighting both the potential and limits of mood-based interventions for social communication.
Authors: Keisuke Adachi, Miyu Kashiwa, Masaumi Shimizu, Masato Okada, Asami Oguro-Ando, Hiroko Ichikawa
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4413303654