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Empathy Needs a Face
Abstract
The importance of the face is best understood, it is suggested, from the effects of visible facial difference in people. Their experience reflects the ways in which the face may be necessary for the interpersonal relatedness underlying such 'sharing' mind states as empathy. It is proposed that the face evolved as a result of several evolutionary pressures but that it is well placed to assume the role of an embodied representation of the increasingly refined inner states of mind that developed as primates became more social, and required more complex social intelligence.
The consequences of various forms of facial disfigurement on interpersonal relatedness and intersubjectivity are then discussed. These narratives reveal the importance of the face in the development of the self-esteem that seems a prerequisite of being able to initiate, and enter, relationships between people. Such experiences are beyond normal experience and, as such, require an extended understanding of the other: to understand facial difference requires empathy. But, in addition, it is also suggested that empathy itself is supported by, and requires, the embodied expression and communication of emotion that the face provides.
... Consistent with the behavioral research of MS reviewed above, numerous interviewbased studies have found that MS individuals experience and express a range of emotions comparable to neurotypical individuals (Cole, 1998(Cole, , 2001(Cole, , 2010Cole & Spalding, 2009;Meyerson, 2001;Partridge, 2006). MS individuals have reported being able to experience emotion by embodying emotions in motor activity. ...
... It is possible that the construction of an interaction pattern relies on the capacity of an individual to simulate another individual's embodiment of that same interaction pattern (Greenspan & Shanker, 2004;Niedenthal et al. 2010). Cole (1998Cole ( , 2001Cole ( , 2010 and Cole and Spalding (2009) whereby an illusory auditory signal is observed by interaction partners when visual information from lip movements does not match the auditory information from speech (Von Berg et al. 2007). Such problems may compromise the steady exchange of embodied simulations in long interactive conditions. ...
... Such problems may compromise the steady exchange of embodied simulations in long interactive conditions. For example, individuals with MS and craniofacial conditions who are only able to exchange three or four signals or gestures in a row tend to have islands of verbal or expressive exchanges, and then become introspective, passive, or switch to another topic in a peculiar manner (Broussard & Borazjani, 2008;Cole, 1998Cole, , 2001Cole, , 2010. Such individuals may have difficulty with extended conversations. ...
Human beings mimic a variety of behaviours, including emotional facial expressions. Embodied simulation theories propose that mimicry relies on internal simulation of perceived emotion to generate understanding and empathy. One influential application of embodied simulation theory, reverse simulation theory, predicts that the inability to make facial expressions results in the failure of emotion facial recognition and empathy. However, behavioral studies of Moebius Syndrome, a congenital condition of bilateral facial palsy and impaired lateral eye movement, show that individuals with Moebius can perform emotion recognition, and that facial mimicry does not play a causal role in such contexts. Hence, facial feedback is not the primary source of information that can be used for emotion recognition and empathy. In support of this, qualitative studies report that individuals with Moebius embody emotions in motor and vocal signals to engage in extended, rhythmic interactive patterns, during which active on-line understanding of another individual's emotions is acquired. Patterns currently known to be engaged in by Moebius individuals and their interactions partners include the negotiation of the next sequences of words or signals in a conversation, and the separation of intense emotions from fixed action responses. These embodied interactions also implicate empathy, since empathy relies on the ability to exchange emotions and meanings as signals with other individuals in a continuous manner. However, an individual with Moebius deprived of such experiences may not fully develop the resources and strategies that support empathy and emotion recognition. The relation between Moebius, autism and empathy is also discussed.
... Drawing from the existing literature on compliance, the face, face-to-face interactions, empathy, and anticipation (e.g. , Cole 2001;Cialdini 2001;Ekman and Rosenberg 1997;Fanghanel, Gedrange, and Proff 2006;Lavelli and Fogel 2005;Schwaninger et al. 2006;Widen and Russell 2004;Yu 2001), I develop and test this proposed theoretical account in five experiments. ...
... Preece and Ghozati (2001) conclude that there is widespread prevalence of empathy in face-to-face interactions. Cole (2001) suggests that the importance of the face should be studied from the effects of visible facial differences in individuals. The face is necessary for the interpersonal relationship underlying a sharing mind state such as empathy (Cole 2001). ...
... Cole (2001) suggests that the importance of the face should be studied from the effects of visible facial differences in individuals. The face is necessary for the interpersonal relationship underlying a sharing mind state such as empathy (Cole 2001). ...
... These systems contribute to our predisposition to anthropomorphize by relating the movements of others to our own bodily movements. But research using points-of-light displays or mechanical-looking robots does not explain why a humanlike body and face affect us so strongly (Cole, 2001;Hirai & Hiraki, 2006). Previous work in human-robot interaction has ignored, or failed to control for, the influence of human appearance and behavior. ...
... Evidence suggests that it is. In "Empathy Needs a Face, " Jonathan Cole (2001) describes interviews with patients who have reduced facial expressiveness caused by Moebius Syndrome or Parkinson's disease. He discovered that after the disease's onset even gregarious extroverts can seem like sullen introverts. ...
... These systems contribute to our predisposition to anthropomorphize by relating the movements of others to our own bodily movements. But research using points-of-light displays or mechanical-looking robots does not explain why a humanlike body and face affect us so strongly (Cole, 2001;Hirai & Hiraki, 2006). Previous work in human-robot interaction has ignored, or failed to control for, the influence of human appearance and behavior. ...
... Evidence suggests that it is. In "Empathy Needs a Face, " Jonathan Cole (2001) describes interviews with patients who have reduced facial expressiveness caused by Moebius Syndrome or Parkinson's disease. He discovered that after the disease's onset even gregarious extroverts can seem like sullen introverts. ...
Androids have the potential to reinvigorate the social and cognitive sciences — both by serving as an experimental apparatus for evaluating hypotheses about human interaction and as a testing ground for cognitive models. Unlike other robotics techniques, androids can illuminate how interaction draws on human appearance and behavior. When cognitive models are implemented in androids, feelings associated with the uncanny valley provide heightened feedback for diagnosing flaws in the models during human–android interaction. This enables a detailed examination of real-time factors in human social interaction. Not only can android science inform us about human beings, but it can also contribute to a methodology for creating interactive robots and a set of principles for their design. By doing this, android science can help us devise a new kind of interface. Since our expressive bodies and perceptual and motor systems have co-evolved to work together, it seems natural for robot engineers to exploit this by building androids, rather than hoping for people to gradually adapt themselves to mechanical-looking robots. In the longer term, androids may prove to be a useful tool for understanding social learning, interpersonal relationships, and how human brains and bodies turn themselves into persons (MacDorman & Cowley, 2006). Of course, there are many ways to investigate human perception and interaction and to explore the potential for interactive robotics. Android science is only one of them. Although the uncanny valley plays a special role in android science, the nature of the phenomenon should rightly be investigated by other approaches too.
... Such embodied responses have been suggested to be of considerable importance for interpersonal communication. Conversely, alterations of involuntary facial reactions (e.g., due to conditions resulting in facial paralysis) seem to have a dramatic impact on the quality of interpersonal communication (Cole, 2001). In spite of a great wealth of neuroimaging literature pertaining to face perception (Blair, 2003; Haxby, Hoffmann, & Gobbini, 2002) as well as imitation and the ''mirror neuron system'' (MNS; Iacoboni et al., 1999; Rizzolatti, Fogassi, & Gallese, 2002b ) the neural correlates of automatically occurring, involuntary facial reactions in response to certain stimuli are not equally well researched and remain incompletely understood. ...
... Facially embodied reactions, in particular , might have also evolved to serve a communicative function by making a feeling state accessible to others, when it translates into a visible facial expression on one's own face. It has been suggested that it might be, in fact, this very evolutionary heritage that intersubjectively conjoins human beings (Cole, 2001). While in adults these automatic, instinctive facial reactions can be suppressed and do not necessarily translate into a visible change in facial appearance, evidence from developmental psychology demonstrates that this mechanism and its automatic manifestation is important from birth onwards and fosters infantÁcarer attachment (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977). ...
Previous investigations have shown that the perception of socially relevant facial expressions, indicating someone else's intention to communicate (e.g., smiling), correlate with increased activity in zygomaticus major muscle regardless of whether the facial expressions seen are directed towards the human observer or toward someone else (Mojzisch et al., 2006). These spontaneous, involuntary reactions have been described as facial mimicry and seem to be of considerable importance for successful interpersonal communication. We investigated whether specific neural substrates underlie these responses by performing a finite impulse response (FIR) analysis of an experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the perception of socially relevant facial expressions (Schilbach et al., 2006). This analysis demonstrates that differential neural activity can be detected relative to the FIR time window in which facial mimicry occurs. The neural network found includes but extends beyond classical motor regions (face motor area) recruiting brain regions known to be involved in social cognition. This network is proposed to subserve the integration of emotional and action-related processes as part of a pre-reflective, embodied reaction to the perception of socially relevant facial expressions as well as a reflective representation of self and other.
... Perché un paziente con sindrome di Moebius, oltre a non riuscire a muovere i muscoli del proprio volto, non riesce neppure a riconoscere l'espressione delle emozioni altrui (Cole, 2001)? Perché più si è capaci e propensi ad imitare gli altri, più si riesce ad entrare in relazione empatica (Chartrand e Bargh, 1999)? ...
Cooperation allows to reach goals that one single organism cannot achieve. In ethological studies the
mechanisms of cooperation have been widely investigated; new experimental paradigms are now introduced in controlled
environments to simplify the approach and to go deep inside the strategies of cooperation. One of these experimental
paradigms is the “loose string task”, for example used with chimpanzees and birds. Analyzing the strategies and the
mechanisms used by artificial organisms to perform a cooperation task, we observed that vision can help agents to solve the
problem better than communication.
... It can be debilitating both physically and psychologically (Cross et al., 2000). Appearance is of fundamental significance to individuality (Bull & Rumsey, 1988) and any unplanned alteration can have profound implications for selfesteem, relationship building (Cole, 2001) and well-being (Partridge, 1998). There is now a body of research into altered facial appearance indicating distress in people across a range of conditions including: neck and head cancer (Hagedoorn & Molleman, 2006), Grave's question is: What psychological factors are associated with distress in patients with facial palsy? ...
Evidence suggests that people with facial palsy may experience higher levels of distress, but the reasons for this are yet to be explored. This study aimed to explore people’s illness beliefs, emotions, and behaviours in relation to their facial palsy and understand how distress is experienced by this group. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted in the UK with adults with facial palsy. Interview questions were theoretically informed by the Common-Sense Self-Regulatory Model (CS-SRM). Thematic Analysis was conducted following a combined inductive and deductive approach. Twenty people with facial palsy participated (70% female; aged 29–84). Patient distress was accounted for by illness beliefs (symptoms, cause, control and treatment, timeline and consequences), and four additional themes (coping behaviours, social support, identity and health service provision). Experiences of anxiety, depression, and anger were widespread, and some participants experienced suicidal ideation. The burden of managing a long-term condition, altered self-perception, and social anxiety and isolation were key drivers of distress. There is a need for more integrated psychological support for patients with facial palsy. Within clinical consultations, patient’s beliefs about facial palsy should be identified and systematically addressed. Service development should include appropriate referral to specialist psychological support via an established care pathway.
... Cole (1998) suggests that the most effective way of understanding the role that the face plays in the formation of the self and interpersonal relatedness is by examining the narratives of those who have lost their face and/or facial expression through illness and injury. Cole (1998Cole ( , 2001 and Cole and Spalding (2008) conducted qualitative interviews with adults living with a range of acquired and congenital conditions that had impacted facial function and facial appearance to gain an understanding of how these conditions impacted their sense of self, as well as their interactions with others. Cole (1998) found that conditions that impair facial function and cause communicative disruptions (e.g., impaired speech, lack of facial expression, and impaired eye contact) disrupted the nonverbal dyadic system between self and other. ...
Congenital facial palsy is a rare medical condition that causes paralysis of the facial muscles, lack of facial expression, and an unusual appearance. Findings from developmental psychology suggest that the face plays a central role in the construction of self. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 adults born with congenital facial palsy. Participant’s constructions of self across the life span were explored and a grounded theory of this process was constructed. Theoretical sampling was conducted with two parents of children born with the condition. All participants reported “struggling to make connections,” “experiencing invalidation,” and “struggling to regulate affect,” which lead to “constructing a defective sense of self.” Alternatively, “making validating connections” facilitated the process of “constructing a validated sense of self.” This study provides insight into the unique social and emotional challenges often experienced by those born with congenital facial palsy and highlights the need for early psychosocial intervention.
... Izražanje čustev deluje kot nekakšen varnostni ventil, je mehanizem, s katerim posamezniki največkrat na nezaveden način sporočajo in opozarjajo okolico, da se z nečim ne strinjajo. Umanjkanje tega mehanizma, rado privede do hipnega izbruha konfliktov (Cole, 2001). ...
Intention of my essay is to demonstrate the role body has in establishing and maintaining of cultural and social phenomena. The body itself does not interest me, what draw my attention is its use in the formation of socially and culturally determinate body techniques. An individual exposes his body to different body techniques with a purpose to produce an event on the surface of his body or an event under the surface of his body. Social function of the event on the surface of the human body is to achieve communication, as the individual, along with the modification of his body, mediate cultural meanings, socially relevant knowledge, values and norms and so on, to another individuals. Tattooing, body piercing, bodybuilding, hand gesticulation, branding, and cosmetic industry are only some of cultural phenomena, which emphasise the event on the surface of the human body. The aim of the event under the surface of the
human body is to originate primordial forms of knowledge, also called carnal knowing. Typical cultural phenomena, which give priority to the event under the surface of the human body, are bulimia and anorexia, holy anorexia, erotic love, extreme sports and many others. Both events cannot exist without each other and are constituents of cognitive body agency.
... Study 3a was designed to demonstrate the full theorized process: Empathy explains the influence of the visual on prosocial intent through increased identification with and perceived need of the intended recipient. In addition, this study extends the type of stimuli to human faces, which may increase empathy and identification (Cole, 2001;Iacoboni, 2007), and which is managerially important given the common use of human presenters in visuals for prosocial campaigns. Theoretically, the use of human images can further help distinguish between aesthetics and functionality, as an aesthetically displeasing face is not necessarily a dysfunctional one. ...
This research investigates how the combination of aesthetically appealing and unappealing visual elements in marketing communications can motivate prosocial behavior. Prior literature has investigated the effectiveness of aesthetically pleasing or displeasing visuals separately and has reported mixed results. Based on the notion that empathy is a key driver of prosocial behavior, the current work first makes a theoretical distinction between two antecedents of empathy—identification and perceived need—and then illustrates how these antecedents are evoked by pleasing and displeasing visual elements, respectively. The authors show that the combination of a pleasing individual (human or object) and a displeasing group is particularly effective in evoking identification and perceived need, and therefore empathy. The elevated empathy, in turn, motivates prosocial behavior. Five main experiments in the field, lab, and online, as well as a pre-study and two post-studies, provide supportive empirical evidence. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
... In addition to this behavioural research, phenomenological interviews, asking the person with Möbius syndrome about their experience, indicate that they can have early emotional experiential problems but that they also fi nd compensatory strategies, and so can experience and express a range of emotions comparable to neurotypi- cal individuals. 42,43,44 Lacking facial expressions, people may engage in more whole- bodied expressions. One person with the condition commented, 'I do not think I had emotion as a child but now I have it. ...
... Conversely, alterations of involuntary facial reactions (e.g. due to conditions resulting in facial paralysis) may have a detrimental effect on the quality of interpersonal communication (Cole, 2001; Oberman et al., 2007 ). In a series of studies, Schilbach and colleagues investigated the behavioral and neural correlates of facial mimicry by using anthropomorphic virtual characters that showed either selfor other-directed facial expressions (e.g. ...
Autism is a developmental condition, characterized by difficulties of social interaction and communication, as well as restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. Although several important conceptions have shed light on specific facets, there is still no consensus about a universal yet specific theory in terms of its underlying mechanisms. While some theories have exclusively focused on sensory aspects, others have emphasized social difficulties. However, sensory and social processes in autism might be interconnected to a higher degree than what has been traditionally thought. We propose that a mismatch in sensory abilities across individuals can lead to difficulties on a social, i.e. interpersonal level and vice versa. In this article, we, therefore, selectively review evidence indicating an interrelationship between perceptual and social difficulties in autism. Additionally, we link this body of research with studies, which investigate the mechanisms of action control in social contexts. By doing so, we highlight that autistic traits are also crucially related to differences in integration, anticipation and automatic responding to social cues, rather than a mere inability to register and learn from social cues. Importantly, such differences may only manifest themselves in sufficiently complex situations, such as real-life social interactions, where such processes are inextricably linked.
... Correspondingly, in the inter-subjective experience, there is an automatic tendency to synchronize with, or mimic, the facial, vocal and postural gestures of those around one (Blair, 2005;Oberman & Ramachandran, 2007). Empathy is particularly dependent upon the embodied expression and communication of emotions via the face (Cole, 2001). ...
Compassion in organizations is researched as a three-stage interrelated process of noticing another's pain, empathic concern or feeling another's pain, and taking action to relieve all, or some, of their suffering. Current organizational compassion theory identifies agent capacities of emotional flexibility and agent diversity in the form of cognitive, affective and resource diversity as essential to compassionate acts in organizations. However, the sustained need to remain empathic for othersin caring organizations, such as healthcare and social services, and in socioeconomic contexts where suffering is endemic, may lead to empathic distress, and a need to express self-oriented actions. These experiences have an effect on both cognitive and affective processing.This paper advances a model of empathy according to Enaction, a dynamical systems approach to embodied cognition. It aims to illustrate the unpredictable and non-linear, dynamical nature of the empathic process. It highlights the contribution of self-awareness, based on embodiment and active sensing, in enhancing the recursive, intrapersonal processing of somatic, cognitive and affective factors. This is deemed to be essential to perspective-taking, thus encouraging empathic concern rather than empathic distress.
... Correspondingly, in the inter-subjective experience, there is an automatic tendency to synchronize with, or mimic, the facial, vocal and postural gestures of those around one (Blair, 2005;Oberman & Ramachandran, 2007). Empathy is particularly dependent upon the embodied expression and communication of emotions via the face (Cole, 2001). ...
Compassion in organizations is researched as a three-stage interrelated process of noticing another's pain, empathic concern or feeling another's pain, and taking action to relieve all, or some, of their suffering. Current organizational compassion theory identifies agent capacities of emotional flexibility and agent diversity in the form of cognitive, affective and resource diversity as essential to compassionate acts in organizations. However, the sustained need to remain empathic for othersin caring organizations, such as healthcare and social services, and in socioeconomic contexts where suffering is endemic, may lead to empathic distress, and a need to express self-oriented actions. These experiences have an effect on both cognitive and affective processing.This paper advances a model of empathy according to Enaction, a dynamical systems approach to embodied cognition. It aims to illustrate the unpredictable and non-linear, dynamical nature of the empathic process. It highlights the contribution of self-awareness, based on embodiment and active sensing, in enhancing the recursive, intrapersonal processing of somatic, cognitive and affective factors. This is deemed to be essential to perspective-taking, thus encouraging empathic concern rather than empathic distress.
... our own face) are more relevant to us than stimuli related to others (Brédart, Delchambre, & Laureys, 2006), and that the sense of self seems to be inherently linked to one's own face (Porciello et al., 2014), looking at our own eyes and face while experiencing compassion towards ourselves might impact our psychophysiology more than just verbalizing selfcompassionate phrases. Moreover, empathetic processes are supported by, and require, the embodied expression and communication of emotions that only the face provides (Cole, 2001). We hypothesized that the use of a self-reflection tool might also improve our ability to empathize with ourselves. ...
We tested whether a mirror could enhance the efficacy of a self-compassion manipulation in increasing soothing positive affect and heart rate variability (HRV). Eighty-six participants generated four phrases they would use to soothe and encourage their best friend. Second, they described an episode where they criticized themselves and were assigned to one of three conditions: (a) repeat the four phrases to themselves while looking at the mirror; (b) repeat the four phrases to themselves without the mirror; (c) look at themselves in the mirror without repeating the phrases. Participants in condition (a) reported higher levels of ‘soothing’ positive affect and HRV compared to participants in conditions (b) and (c). The effect of the ‘phrases at the mirror’ manipulation on soothing affect was mediated by increased common humanity. The mirror enhances the efficacy of this self-compassion manipulation in activating the soothing affect system connected with parasympathetic nervous system activity.
... Previous research suggests that the face is "the emotion highway" (De Waal, 2009, p. 83), communicating inner states and offering the quickest connection to the other. It may therefore be necessary to evoke empathy (Cole, 2001). Hence, especially the removal of the head may potentiate the dissociation e empathy link. ...
Many people enjoy eating meat but dislike causing pain to animals. Dissociating meat from its animal origins may be a powerful way to avoid cognitive dissonance resulting from this 'meat paradox'. Here, we provide the first comprehensive test of this hypothesis, highlighting underlying psychological mechanisms. Processed meat made participants less empathetic towards the slaughtered animal than unprocessed meat (Study 1). When beheaded, a whole roasted pork evoked less empathy (Study 2a) and disgust (Study 2b) than when the head was present. These affective responses, in turn, made participants more willing to eat the roast and less willing to consider an alternative vegetarian dish. Conversely, presenting a living animal in a meat advertisement increased empathy and reduced willingness to eat meat (Study 3). Next, describing industrial meat production as "harvesting" versus "killing" or "slaughtering" indirectly reduced empathy (Study 4). Last, replacing "meat/pork" with "cow/pig" in a restaurant menu increased empathy and disgust, which both equally reduced willingness to eat meat and increased willingness to choose an alternative vegetarian dish (Study 5). In all experiments, effects were strongly mediated by dissociation and interacted with participants' general dissociation tendencies in Study 3 and 5, so that effects were particularly pronounced among participants who generally spend efforts disassociating meat from animals in their daily lives. Together, this line of research demonstrates the large role various culturally-entrenched processes of dissociation play for meat consumption.
... In psychoanalytic practice and theory, the dynamism of the relation shared between practitioner and patient is of primary, and therapeutic, importance. We can also find it present, peppered in writing from philosophy and psychology throughBuber (2004Buber ( [1937) and other writers such asCole (2001),MacMurray (1999MacMurray ( [1961),Ratcliffe (2007a), Scheler (1998[1954),Schutz (1967),Stanghellini & Ballerini (2007),Starwarska (2009), Stern (1984, Trevarthen(Trevarthen and Hubley 1978) andUrfer (2001). In calling attention to how this term, and related ones (such as 'relations'), are used, I seek to make the role of relatedness more explicit by emphasising the term and subsequently exploring what supports a sense of relatedness to dynamically evolve through interaction. ...
... Moreover, these data do not explain why autistics have profound defects in recognising other people's emotions. 29COLE 1998COLE , 1999COLE , 2000was that face represented person-hood and feelings. So, through letters and faxes, I asked her to tell me about her problems with faces: My difficulties in looking at faces were a) to stand looking, b) to comprehend what I saw. ...
... a = näköaivokuori, b = sulcus temporalis superior (STS), c = päälaen lohkon alaosa, d = Brocan alue, e = primaarinen liikeaivokuori. a b d e c lailla, jotka eivät voi matkia toisten ilmeitä eivätkä myöskään ilmaista omia emootioitaan ilmeillään, on vaikeuksia ymmärtää toisten emootioita (Cole 2001). ...
Toimintamme monimutkaisessa ihmiskontaktien verkostossa edellyttää aivoiltamme eri-tyisiä sosiaalisen kognition mekanismeja, jotka mahdollistavat mm. muiden henkilöiden mielenliikkeiden ja aikeiden jatkuvan arvioinnin. Sosiaalisen kognition hermostollinen perusta, jota on viime aikoina pyritty selvittämään aivojen kuvantamisen keinoin, on kiinteässä yhteydessä aivojen emootio-ja motivaatiojärjestelmiin. V anhan intiaaniviisauden mukaan toista ei saa tuomita ennen kuin on kävellyt viikon hänen mokkasiineissaan. Tällainen toisen tilanteeseen asettuminen vaatii empatiaa, joka on sosiaalisen kognition jalostuneimpia muoto-ja. Ihmiset eroavat toisistaan sekä empatiaky-vyltään että monilta muilta sosiaalisen kanssa-käymisen kyvyiltään, mutta erojen mahdollisia aivomekanismeja on päästy tutkimaan vasta vii-me vuosina. Samalla on avautunut aivan uusia näkökulmia aivotutkimukseen, jossa on totun-naisesti käytetty hyvin yksinkertaisia ja tiukasti kontrolloituja ärsykkeitä. Tässä artikkelissa esi-tellään joitakin viimeaikaisia suuntauksia so-siaalisen kognition aivomekanismien tutkimuk-sessa. Miten sosiaalinen kognitio eroaa muusta kognitiosta? Sosiaaliseen kognitioon liittyvät erityisen lähei-sesti emootiot ja motivaatio. Emootioiden mer-kitys sosiaalisessa kanssakäymisessä on nähtä-vissä jo alemmilla eläinlajeilla, ja esimerkiksi pienten lasten sosiaalinen vuorovaikutus on val-taosin emootioiden hallitsemaa. Normaalin aistiprosessoinnin, muistin, tark-kaavaisuuden, emootioiden ja motivaation lisäk-si sosiaalisessa kognitiossa tarvitaan kykyä teh-dä omaa elämää koskevia järkeviä päätöksiä so-siaalisten konventioiden puitteissa ja ymmärtää toisten henkilöiden aikeita. Olennainen käsite on mielenmalli (theory of mind), jolla tarkoite-taan kykyä ymmärtää, mitä toisen ihmisen mie-lessä liikkuu. Mielenmallin edellytys on, että toi-sella henkilöllä uskotaan olevan mentaalisia ti-loja, joiden sisältö päätellään omien vastaavan-laisten tilojen perusteella (Frith ja Frith 1999). Kyseessä on siis toisen henkilön mielentilojen simulointi. Tyypillisessä mielenmallitestissä koe-henkilön on kerrottava, mitä yksinkertaisen ta-rinan henkilö jossakin tilanteessa todennäköi-simmin ajattelee. Toistaiseksi on selvittämättä, onko aivoissa joitakin pelkästään sosiaaliseen vuorovaikutuk-seen erikoistuneita alueita ja toimintoja vai voi-daanko sosiaalinen kognitio – aivotoiminnan mielessä – redusoida emootioiden, motivaation ja muiden »tavanomaisessa» kognitiossa tarvit-tavien aivomekanismien yhteistoiminnaksi.
... As Merleau-Ponty (1964) suggested, "I live in the facial expression of the other, as I feel him living in mine." This raises the possibility that empathy may be a challenge for people with facial paralysis to receive, convey, or experience, for reasons including stigmatization of facial difference, difficulty communicating emotion, and a possible difficulty recognizing and embodying others' emotions (Cole 2001). We suggest here that the primary breakdown of empathy for those with facial paralysis is the inability of others to recognize the facial expressions of people with facial paralysis. ...
Although the importance of the face in communication is well-known, there has been little
discussion of the ramifications for those who lack facial expression: individuals with facial
paralysis such as Bell’s palsy and Möbius syndrome, and facial movement disorders like
Parkinson’s disease. By examining the challenges experienced by these individuals, this
chapter not only highlights the importance of facial expression, but reveals the role of the
rest of the body in emotional experience, communication, and interaction. First, the qualitative
experiences and psychological adjustment of people with facial paralysis are examined;
then applied and theoretical implications of facial paralysis to facial feedback theory, mimicry,
and empathy are covered. Next, the tendency for people to form inaccurate impressions
of the emotions and traits of people with facial paralysis are discussed. Some people with
facial paralysis compensate for their lack of facial expression by increasing expressivity in
their bodies and voices. These compensatory expressions may improve impressions of them.
Importantly, potential risks of misdiagnosing people with facial paralysis and other facial
movement disorders with psychological disorders such as autism, depression, or apathy are
considered. This chapter concludes with ways to facilitate social interaction.
... For androids to be integrated into social roles, it is important for them to look human, just as it is important for people to look human. Since partial facial paralysis owing to such diseases as Parkinson's can cause even the most gregarious of people to be shunned as sullen introverts (Cole, 2001), androids need sufficient facial expressiveness to avoid the same fate. But expressiveness beyond human norms becomes increasingly disturbing with the realism of human simulation (Vinayagamoorthy et al., 2005). ...
... Difficulty with face processing may lead to subsequent difficulties in social development. In an intriguing qualitative study, Cole (2001) People would ask these facially impoverished people questions that demanded 'yes, no' answers rather than more expansive ones, so avoiding an engaged conversation. There was a definite movement away from these people at the meetings. ...
Face processing deficits appear early in autism and greatly impact subsequent development. In this paper, the N170 component, an event-related brain potential sensitive to face processing, is examined in children with autism and typical development. The N170 amplitude was sensitive to group differences, as children with typical development showed greater differentiation to upright vs. inverted stimuli and faces vs. vehicles than children with autism. The N170 was also delayed in children with autism. The N170 was not a sensitive marker of individual differences in social behavior and autistic symptomology, but the proceeding positive peak, the P1, was a sensitive marker of individual differences in children with typical development. Results suggest that children with autism and children with typical development employ different face processing strategies, even for the basic encoding of a face.
... For androids to be integrated into social roles, it is important for them to look human, just as it is important for people to look human. Since partial facial paralysis owing to such diseases as Parkinson's can cause even the most gregarious of people to be shunned as sullen introverts (Cole, 2001), androids need sufficient facial expressiveness to avoid the same fate. But expressiveness beyond human norms becomes increasingly disturbing with the realism of human simulation (Vinayagamoorthy et al., 2005). ...
... Moreover, if people are prevented from automatically imitating the muscle contractions of the faces they are exposed to (for instance, by compelling them to keep a pencil with the teeth transversal to the mouth), they become less able to detect the emotional expression of the observed faces (Niedenthal, Barsalou, Winkielman, Krauth-Gruber, & Ric, 2005). This experimental finding supports analogous results observed in patients affected by the Moebius syndrome, which impedes them to move their facial muscles: as a consequence of such an impairment, these patients fail to recognise the emotions expressed by others (Cole, 2001). Finally, it is worth noting that the same cortical areas are activated when people observe and imitate faces expressing emotions (Leslie, Johnson-Frey, & Grafton, 2004). ...
... The face is the most obvious expression of our individuality and sense of personal and family identity (Bradbury, 1996). It is the means by which we communicate with others, and the basis upon which other people's first impressions and judgements of us are formed (Cole, 2001). No less than the disfigured person, the person with a face transplant will have to undergo a process of mourning for the face they have lost (Partridge, 1994). ...
A DVANCES in microsurgical techniques will soon allow those whose faces have been severely disfigured by disease or injury to be offered a face transplant. But plastic surgeons have raised the need for an ethical debate before any such procedures are carried out in humans. Peter Butler, consultant plastic surgeon at London's Royal Free Hospital, has said: 'It is not "Can we do it?", but "Should we do it?".' ('Face transplants "on the horizon"', 2002). Transplants may help overcome some of the physiological consequences associated with more traditional facial surgery, but it is worth considering the psychological implications of facial transplantation. Who's first on the operating table? The first potential area of involvement for psychologists in facial transplants could be in deciding who is eligible – and dealing with the distress of those who are told they are not. Butler estimates that only 10 or 15 people would presently be considered eligible for transplant in the UK ('Face
... These somatic phenomena are therapist responses, which, through a layer of psychotherapeutic interpretation, become located within the body of the client. However, what is possible is an exploration of therapist embodiment; this may have something to say about the therapeutic encounter and the intersubjective space between client and therapist (Cole, 2001; Thompson, 2001; Toombs, 2001; Zahavi, 2001). It can, however, unless discussed with the client, only ever mean anything to the therapist. ...
Private Practice This study explores psychotherapists' somatic experiences during the therapeutic encounter, linking these to ideas from the phenomenological school of philosophy, in particular the notion of the lived-body paradigm in relation to therapists' physical reactions to clients. The methodology for this research evolved from 3 discussion groups, which led to a series of 14 in-depth interviews and 2 professional scrutiny discussion groups. All the participants were experienced psychotherapists. A grounded-theory analysis generated a set of first-order themes that were clustered into the second-order themes of body empathy, body as receiver, and body management. The final grounded theory of psychotherapist embodiment emerged after an analysis of the permeative themes of professional and personal discourse and researchers' bodily responses. The grounded theory of psychotherapist embodiment has revealed the importance of the therapist's body within the therapeutic encounter. Psychotherapy can be considered a way of constructing meaning out of an encounter between two bodies: that of the client and that of the therapist. The principle of this article is that psychotherapy is an inherently embodied process. If psychotherapy is an investigation into the intersubjective space between client and therapist, then as a profession we need to take our bodily reactions much more seriously than we have so far because, as some authors have noted, the body is "the very basis of human subjectivity" (Crossley, 1995, pp. 44–45). This study explores how psycho-therapists experience their bodies during their work with clients. The research begins with a question addressing how the body in psychotherapy had become marginalized and somehow ignored, or as Boadella suggests (1997, p. 31), "the body which became symbolically banned from psychotherapy with the political expulsion of Wilhelm Reich from the psychoanalytic movement . . .
... It will be a question of further research to elucidate whether these parallels in EMG and brain activity might be functionally connected. We tentatively propose that the activity in M. zygomaticus major can be understood as a manifestation of facial embodiment, that is, an automatic, imitative response to salient aspects of the stimuli that predisposes us to process social cues and helps us to grasp them (Cole, 2001). ...
We present two recent studies which explore the biological basis of social interaction with virtual characters. Anthropomorphic virtual characters were presented which appeared moving on-screen and turned either towards the participant or towards a third party who is out of view. In dynamic animations, virtual characters then exhibited FACS-coded facial expressions, which were either socially relevant (i.e., indicative of the intention to establish interpersonal contact) or arbitrary. These four conditions thus established a two-by-two factorial design. This paradigm was developed for the purpose of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study and a study recording eye movements and facial muscle activity (EMG). Functional neuroimaging revealed that medial prefrontal activation is observed not only during one's own personal involvement in social interaction – as indicated by adequate facial expressions – but also during the experience of an interaction between the virtual character and a third other. Similarly, differential EMG activity was observed not only when the virtual characters smiled towards the human observer, but also when the smiles were directed towards someone else. In contrast, eye movements of human participants showed that the intensity of visual attention as manifested in visual fixation duration is specifically related to having eye-to-eye contact with a virtual other. In sum, the data from these two studies demonstrate a clear-cut difference between visual attention and neuro-and electrophysiological correlates depending upon the observer's personal involvement (i.e., adopting a second-person perspective) versus being a passive by-stander (i.e., adopting a third-person perspective). We conclude with a discussion of the evolutionary significance of these results.
... Dimberg and colleagues (2000) make the simulation-compatible argument that spontaneous and rapid EMG responses to facial expression must rely on innate affect programs rather than conscious knowledge of emotional meanings. Elsewhere, Dimberg (1988) has argued that these innate programs dispose us to empathically experience the emotions we observe in others (see also Cole 2001;, for related views), invoking the "facial feedback hypothesis" as one possible explanation of this capacity. This hypothesis states that a person's own facial expression can evoke or enhance her emotion experience, either through direct feedback from the face to areas responsible for the generation of emotion experience, or indirectly, through the processing of proprioceptive information about the configuration of facial muscles (Camras, Holland, and Patterson 1993). ...
An argument is developed that supports a simulationist account about the foundations of infants' and young children's understanding that other people have mental states. This argument relies on evidence that infants come to the world with capacities to send and receive affective cues and to appreciate the emotional states of others – capacities well suited to a social environment initially made up of frequent and extended emotional interactions with their caregivers. The central premise of the argument is that the foundation of infants' understanding of other minds is built upon an early-developing capacity to share others' emotion experiences. The emotion experiences elicited in interactions between caregivers and infants enable the elaboration of this primitive understanding into a more fully developed understanding of psychological subjects. The evidence presented in support of these claims derives from a wide range of studies of the phenomena of emotional contagion, affective communication, and emotion regulation involving infants, young children, and adults.
... Our brains have co-evolved with our expressive bodies and faces and have been honed by experience to understand human feelings and intentions. Friendly extroverts who cannot fully animate their faces because of Parkinson's disease or Moebius Syndrome can be mistaken for sullen introverts and suffer social isolation [42]. So rather than cripple robots with a form that human beings are less adept at interpreting, it makes sense for robot engineers to leverage on the human form by building very humanlike androids. ...
The human body constructs itself into a person by becoming attuned to the affective consequences of its actions in social relationships. Norms develop that ground perception and action, providing standards for appraising conduct. The body finds itself motivated to enact itself as a character in the drama of life, carving from its beliefs, intentions, and experiences a unique identity and perspective. If a biological body can construct itself into a person by exploiting social mechanisms, could an electromechanical body, a robot, do the same? To qualify for personhood, a robot body must be able to construct its own identity, to assume different roles, and to discriminate in forming friendships. Though all these conditions could be considered benchmarks of personhood, the most compelling benchmark, for which the above mentioned are prerequisites, is the ability to sustain long-term relationships. Long-term relationships demand that a robot continually recreate itself as it scripts its own future. This benchmark may be contrasted with those of previous research, which tend to define personhood in terms that are trivial, subjective, or based on assumptions about moral universals. Although personhood should not in principle be limited to one species, the most humanlike of robots are best equipped for reciprocal relationships with human beings
... Jabbi, Bastiaansen, and Keysers (2008) found that experiencing disgust, viewing someone else experiencing it, or imagining a disgusting experience have a common neural substrate in the anterior insular cortex and adjacent frontal operculum. Human appearance and emotional expressivity may heighten empathy by enhancing the brain's ability to simulate being in another person's place (Cole, 2001;Preston & de Waal, 2002). ...
As virtual humans approach photorealistic perfection, they risk making real humans uncomfortable. This intriguing phenomenon, known as the uncanny valley, is well known but not well understood. In an effort to demystify the causes of the uncanny valley, this paper proposes several perceptual, cognitive, and social mechanisms that have already helped address riddles like empathy, mate selection, threat avoidance, cognitive dissonance, and psychological defenses. In the four studies described herein, a computer generated human character’s facial proportions, skin texture, and level of detail were varied to examine their effect on perceived eeriness, human likeness, and attractiveness. In Study I, texture photorealism and polygon count increased human likeness. In Study II, texture photorealism heightened the accuracy of human judgments of ideal facial proportions. In Study III, atypical facial proportions were shown to be more disturbing on photorealistic faces than on other faces. In Study IV, a mismatch in the size and texture of the eyes and face was especially prone to make a character eerie. These results contest the depiction of the uncanny valley as a simple relation between comfort level and human likeness. This paper concludes by introducing a set of design principles for bridging the uncanny valley.
... This could be because the latter were of relatively short duration, and easier to compartmentalize as purely physical. The former, however, were arguably more meaningful: One's appearance and others' social feedback are central to selfconcept and self-worth, and have lasting implications for the individual's quality of life and social relationships (Cole, 2001). When participants encountered a particularly challenging experience, they tended to report it quickly after the event, while details of what occurred and the associated thoughts and feelings were clearly still very fresh in the mind, similar to previous studies (Välimäki et al., 2007). ...
We conducted a small-scale qualitative diary study to gather accounts from five facial cancer surgery patients. Participants were asked to record their experiences, thoughts, and feelings for up to 1 year, as they underwent and recovered from their surgery and adapted to living with alterations in their appearance. In this article, we consider evidence relating to the diary as a research tool and discuss our experiences of issues arising with the qualitative diary method employed in this study.These include comparability with interview data, factors affecting the quantity and quality of data (novelty, personal significance, and individual writing styles), chronological storytelling, and barriers to writing (visual difficulties and depression).
This chapter explores how student affairs professionals in higher education in the United States can benefit from integrating a growth mindset grounded in empathy in their professional life. The authors examine ways a fixed mindset can impede learning and perpetuate inequities and how a growth mindset can encourage student affairs professionals to see themselves and the students they serve as capable of learning and growth. Therefore, the objectives of this chapter are (1) to provide insight into the meaning of mindset, (2) to highlight how the development of a growth mindset can help student affairs professionals nurture and sustain their capacity for empathy, (3) to examine how empathy supports the building of meaningful relationships with students, (4) how these relationships influence student success more equitably, and (5) provide recommendations on how student affairs professionals can actively develop and maintain an empathic growth mindset.
We present a unique opportunity to test the ability of artists to systematically evoke emotions in an audience via art and, transversely, for viewers to pick out intentions of the artist. This follows a recent article which had shown this connection using installation artworks by MFA student-artists. However, this earlier article had left open questions regarding whether similar relationships might be found with professional artists and contemporary art-putting at odds earlier expressive theories that art should transmit emotion versus 20-21st century arguments that art-making might be more for its "own sake" and thus with art, artists, and/or contemporary viewers perhaps not producing similar results. With works from the Italian pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale, we matched viewers' (N = 113) reported subjectively felt emotions, and their identification of emotions that they thought the artist wanted them to feel, to the actual artists' intentions (as communicated via an accompanying curator's text). Replicating the previous article, viewers identified intended emotions well above chance and reported feeling intended emotions more than non-intended emotions, with two of three artworks. At the same time, what individuals subjectively felt better predicted how they interpreted artist intentions with an effect size twice that of actual intentions. Feeling that one understood intention, regardless of actually being correct, and feeling more emotion, in general, also better predicted positively rating the art. Similar results were found in a reanalysis of the previous article's data, raising intriguing implications for the role of objective and subjective understanding, empathy, and appraisal in art experience.
Abstract
Objectives:
To know the patients’ satisfaction undergoing thread facelift using FACE-Q.
Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in a private cosmetic surgery setup in patients undergoing thread facelift. Six different scales of FACE-Q questionnaire were used pre-operatively and after 3 months. All the responses were collected. And the data was analyzed to find out the statistical significance.
Results: The FACE-Q was completed by 50 patients. All the patients underwent thread facelift which included barbed sutures and PDO threads. The mean age of the patients was 37.7 years (males: 39.3 years and females: 36.8 years). The patients showed significant changes in the pre-operative and postoperative parameters (p<0.01).
Conclusion: The patient-reported outcome instruments like FACE-Q have great implications for ascertaining the outcomes of the cosmetic procedures.
Pocos espectadores podrán negar haberse encogido de dolor ante alguna imagen explícita de una fractura, un corte o un desgarro, o haberse visto contagiados por el intenso sufrimiento que las expresiones de algún personaje denotaba. A pesar de ello, pocas investigaciones han ahondado en el estudio de los mecanismos estéticos y psicofísicos del dolor cinematográco. Partiendo de las conclusiones de investigaciones recientes en el ámbito de las neurociencias cognitivas, este trabajo hace inventario de algunas de las vías por las que un artefacto audiovisual puede provocar sensaciones de dolor en sus espectadores, teniendo en cuenta la relación entre los factores corporales y las estrategias estéticas que las modulan. Esta casuística se acompaña de una serie de ejemplos concretos en los que se analizan las estrategias seguidas para su suscitación, así como el modo en que estas sensaciones se integran en la experiencia completa de cada escena
In everyday life we actively react to the emotion expressions of others, responding by showing matching, or sometimes contrasting, expressions. Emotional mimicry has important social functions such as signalling affiliative intent and fostering rapport and is considered one of the cornerstones of successful interactions. This book provides a multidisciplinary overview of research into emotional mimicry and empathy and explores when, how and why emotional mimicry occurs. Focusing on recent developments in the field, the chapters cover a variety of approaches and research questions, such as the role of literature in empathy and emotional mimicry, the most important brain areas involved in the mimicry of emotions, the effects of specific psychopathologies on mimicry, why smiling may be a special case in mimicry, whether we can also mimic vocal emotional expressions, individual differences in mimicry and the role of social contexts in mimicry.
In recent years, facial difference is increasingly on the public and academic agenda. This is evidenced by the growing public presence of individuals with an atypical face, and the simultaneous emergence of research investigating the issues associated with facial variance. The scholarship on facial difference approaches this topic either through a medical and rehabilitation perspective, or a psycho-social one. However, having a different face also encompasses an embodied dimension. In this paper, we explore this embodied dimension by interpreting the stories of individuals with facial limb absence against the background of phenomenological theories of the body, illness and disability. Our findings suggest that the atypical face disrupts these individuals’ engagement with everyday projects when it gives rise to disruptive perceptions, sensations, and observations. The face then ceases to be the absent background to perception, and becomes foregrounded in awareness. The disruptions evoked by facial difference call for adjustments: as they come to terms with their altered face, the participants in our study gradually develop various new bodily habits that re-establish their face’s absence, or relate to its disruptive presence. It is through these emergent habits that facial difference comes to be embodied. By analyzing the everyday experiences of individuals with facial limb absence, this article provides a much-needed exploration of the embodied aspects of facial difference. It also exemplifies how a phenomenological account of illness and disability can do justice both to the impairments and appearance issues associated with atypical embodiment.
Drawing on studies of surface topography, image editing, and diagnostic and surgical experience, Faces Inside and Outside the Clinic addresses the notion of 'truth' in what are considered to be 'right' and 'wrong' faces, whether in clinical cosmetic procedures or in specific sociocultural contexts outside the clinic. With attention to the manner in which the human face - and often the individual herself or himself as a consequence - is physically defined, conceptually judged, numerically measured and clinically analysed, this book reveals that on closer inspection, supposedly objective and evidential 'truths' are in fact subjective and prescriptive. Adopting a Foucauldian analysis of the ways in which 'normalising technologies' and 'techniques' ultimately preserve and expand upon an increasing array of 'abnormal' facial configurations, Faces Inside and Outside the Clinic shows that when determining 'right' and 'wrong' faces, what happens inside the clinic is inextricably linked to what happens outside the clinic - and vice versa. As such, it will be of interest to scholars and students of social, cultural and political theory, contemporary philosophy and the social scientific study of science, health and technology.
Although there is a rich legal literature on whether remorse should play a role in the criminal justice system, there is little discussion of how remorse can be evaluated in the legal context. There is ample evidence that perceptions of remorse play a powerful role in criminal cases. Yet the most basic question about the evaluation of remorse has received little attention: is remorse something that can be accurately evaluated in a courtroom? This article argues that evaluation of remorse requires a deep assessment of character, or of the condition of the soul, and that the legal system may not be capable of such evaluation. At the same time, the article acknowledges that remorse is so closely intertwined with judgments of culpability, it may not be feasible to bar decision-makers from considering it. Assuming that evaluation of remorse is ineradicable, the question becomes: what can be done to improve upon an evaluative process riddled with error and bias?
Background: The primary outcome measures for patients who undergo aesthetic facial procedures are quality of life and satisfaction with appearance. The FACE-Q, a new patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument composed of independently functioning scales, is designed to measure a broad range of important outcomes in patients who undergo cosmetic surgical and/or nonsurgical facial procedures.
Objectives: The authors describe the development and psychometric evaluation of the FACE-Q Aging Appraisal Scale and the FACE-Q Patient-Perceived Age Visual Analog Scale (VAS).
Methods: International guidelines for creating PRO instruments were strictly observed throughout development of the FACE-Q scales. Qualitative methods were used to identify the concepts most important to patients who received aesthetic facial procedures. These were turned into “items”—and the resultant FACE-Q Aging Appraisal Scale was field tested, along with the Patient-Perceived Age VAS, in 288 patients who underwent cosmetic surgical and/or nonsurgical facial procedures.
Results: Rasch measurement theory and traditional psychometric methods confirmed the reliability and validity of the scales.
Conclusions: The FACE-Q Aging Appraisal Scale and Patient-Perceived Age VAS are psychometrically sound, condition-specific PRO instruments with excellent reliability and validity. They enable accurate outcome assessments in patients who undergo aesthetic facial procedures.
Previous research has found that people with visible differences are granted more physical space than people without visible differences during encounters with the general public. This study aimed to examine whether given significant sociocultural changes, this remains the case in contemporary Australia. The personal space afforded to a person with a visible difference (with a temporary difference-a scar and a permanent difference-a strawberry hemangioma) or a person without a visible difference by 408 pedestrians on a busy pedestrian walkway in the central business district of Adelaide, Australia, was measured. This was a replication and extension of a study by N. Rumsey, R. Bull, and D. Gahagan (1982). Pedestrians stood no further away from the model in the visibly different conditions than in the nonvisibly different conditions. Pedestrians stood an average of 128 cm away in the control condition, 120 cm away in the scar condition, and 140 cm away in the birthmark condition. People did not stand to the nonvisibly different (left) side of the model more frequently in the visibly different conditions than in the nonvisibly different conditions. As the original research by N. Rumsey et al. is frequently cited as representing the current situation for people with visible differences, failing to replicate the result is significant. Changes may be due to either recent sociocultural changes promoting inclusion of disability or increasing social taboo against expressing overt prejudice.
Acne vulgaris is a skin disease affecting many young people and, if it continues into their twenties, can be a substantial barrier to social relationships. Although there is evidence that sufferers are adversely psychologically affected, what is less apparent from research to date is whether this is because of negative self-beliefs or the discriminatory attitudes of others. This study set out to explore how far young people with moderate acne are viewed less favourably compared to their clear-skinned peers. The design was quasi-experimental. The faces of two male and two female 21-year-old volunteers with clear skin were photographed and then photographed again after having had facial signs of moderate acne simulated by a professional make-up artist. Photographs of a male and female face were given to 143 participants who were divided randomly into two conditions: "Clear" and "acne". The former were shown the unblemished faces and the latter were given the faces with acne. The participants were asked to estimate the age of the person in the photograph and then rate the volunteer on a scale of 16 personality items. It was found that the participants in the "clear" condition estimated the volunteers as two years older and more mature than in the "acne" condition. In terms of personality, the photographs in the "clear" condition were given higher scores for potential friendship, attractiveness and overall positive personality features than the photographs in the "acne" condition. The conclusion is that moderate acne vulgaris could be a potential barrier to social relationships for young people not simply because of their social anxiety but because they may well be meeting with prejudice. It is suggested that attitudes might be changed by more accurate information about the condition.
I draw upon the conceptual resources of the extended mind thesis (EM) to analyze empathy and interpersonal understanding. Against the dominant mentalistic paradigm, I argue that empathy is fundamentally an extended bodily activity and that much of our social understanding happens outside of the head. First, I look at how the two dominant models of interpersonal understanding, theory theory and simulation theory, portray the cognitive link between folk psychology and empathy. Next, I challenge their internalist orthodoxy and offer an alternative “extended” characterization of empathy. In support of this characterization, I analyze some narratives of individuals with Moebius syndrome, a kind of expressive deficit resulting from bilateral facial paralysis. I conclude by discussing how a Zen Buddhist ethics of responsiveness is helpful for articulating the practical significance of an extended, body-based account of empathy.
The extended mind hypothesis (Clark and Chalmers in Analysis 58(1):7–19, 1998; Clark 2008) is an influential hypothesis in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. I argue that the extended mind hypothesis is born
to be wild. It has undeniable and irrepressible tendencies of flouting grounding assumptions of the traditional information-processing
paradigm. I present case-studies from social cognition which not only support the extended mind proposal but also bring out
its inherent wildness. In particular, I focus on cases of action-understanding and discuss the role of embodied intentionality
in the extended mind project. I discuss two theories of action-understanding for exploring the support for the extended mind
hypothesis in embodied intersubjective interaction, namely, simulation theory and a non-simulationist perceptual account.
I argue that, if the extended mind adopts a simulation theory of action-understanding, it rejects representationalism. If
it adopts a non-simulationist perceptual account of action-understanding, it rejects the classical sandwich view of the mind.
KeywordsExtended mind–Action-understanding–Simulation theory–Non-simulationist perceptual theory–Embodied intersubjectivity–Representationalism–Dynamical systems–Perception–Action–Social cognition
The human ability to recognize the actions and gestures of others is fundamental to communication and social perception. Evidence suggests that this ability is supported by the mirror neuron system, the primary function of which is to mentally simulate a perceived action in the observer’s own motor system. Traditionally, the processing that occurs within this network is considered to be automatic and stimulus-driven, but neurophysiological data from macaques suggest that even the activity of single mirror neuron units maybe modulated by attention and context. Similarly, in humans, there is a growing body of evidence to indicate that the mirror system is also vulnerable to top-down processes such as cognitive strategy, learned associations and selective attention. In this chapter, we review the evidence that indicates observed actions are processed automatically, and contrast these data with those that indicate a susceptibility of action processing to top-down factors. We suggest that the assumption that observed actions are processed involuntarily arose largely because most studies have not explicitly challenged the automaticity of the visuomotor transformation process. The frontoparietal mirror system should therefore be viewed in the context of a larger network of areas involved in action observation and social cognition, whose activity may mutually inform and be informed by the mirror system itself. Such reciprocal connections maybe critical in guiding ongoing behavior by allowing the mirror system to adapt to concurrent task demands and inhibit the processing of task-irrelevant gestures.
This report presents a summary of the research stimulated by the Concerted Action: Beauty & the Doctor: Moral Issues in Health Care with Regard to Appearance, funded by the European Commission, Directorate General XII, Biomedicine and Health Research Programme (BIOMED). European Commission, Directorate General XII, Biomedicine and Health Research Programme (BIOMED).
In this article Lindsay O’Dell and Jess Prior present the
findings of a small surv e y, organised as a collaborative
project to evaluate a schools’ service, set up in 1998
by the charity Changing Fa c e s1 to assist pupils with
facial disfigurements. Twenty schools responded, each
of which had a pupil in their school, aged between
3–16 years, with a facial disfigurement. Qualitative
and quantitative questions addressed schools’
expectations of the service, ratings of visits from
Changing Faces, helpful/unhelpful aspects of the
s e rvice and suggestions for improvements, as well as
information about the child and school. The data was
analysed using both quantitative data and a qualitative
thematic analysis. Findings point to reasons for
initial contact, and effectiveness of any interv e n t i o n .
Whilst many families and schools seek support in
times of crisis, sometimes contact is made to try and
prevent future difficulties. Professionals working in
education may have much to learn from cases where
the child, school and family are all coping well.
Future research plans include extending this pilot surv e y
to include the views of a wider range of schools as
well as those of the children and families involved.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.