What's in a face: Norms for static versus dynamic emotional expressions

Abstract

This paper presents subjective rating norms for a set of emotional faces. Twenty non-professional models were asked to pose in three different emotional expressions (smile, frown, neutral) and filmed. After each pose models completed the PANAS questionnaire. Results showed that models reported more positive affect after posing with a smile and less positive affect after frowning, indicating the effectiveness of the posing. In a second stage stills, 5 and 10-second videos were edited from the shooting material. 120 participants evaluated 60 stimuli regarding attractiveness, arousal, clarity, genuineness, familiarity, intensity, valence and similarity. Descriptive results (mean, standard deviation and confidence intervals) for each stimulus in each dimension are presented. Overall, dimensions were highly correlated. Importantly, while attractiveness and familiarity increased from stills to 10-second videos, genuineness decreased. This set of stimulus allows the selection of emotional expressions with different levels on the examined dimensions with potential for research in different areas.