Marie P. Cross’s research while affiliated with University of Pittsburgh and other places

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Publications (14)


Differences in Beta Diversity between Low, Mid, and High Stressful Life Events Groups in Study 1.
Shannon Diversity of those in the Low Perceived Stress Group is Significantly Higher than those in the High Perceived Stress Group.
Differences in Beta Diversity between Low, Mid, and High RSA Stress Reactivity Groups in Study 1.
Differences in Beta Diversity between Low, Mid, and High Stressful Life Events Groups in Study 2.
Biological, environmental, and psychological stress and the human gut microbiome in healthy adults
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January 2025

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3 Citations

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Emerging research suggests that the gut microbiome plays a crucial role in stress. We assess stress-microbiome associations in two samples of healthy adults across three stress domains (perceived stress, stressful life events, and biological stress /Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia; RSA). Study 1 (n = 62; mean-age = 37.3 years; 68% female) and Study 2 (n = 74; mean-age = 41.6 years; female only) measured RSA during laboratory stressors and used 16S rRNA pyrosequencing to classify gut microbial composition from fecal samples. Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States was used to predict functional pathways of metagenomes. Results showed differences in beta diversity between high and low stressful life events groups across both studies. Study 1 revealed differences in beta diversity between high and low RSA groups. In Study 1, the low perceived stress group was higher in alpha diversity than the high perceived stress group. Levels of Clostridium were negatively associated with RSA in Study 1 and levels Escherichia/Shigella were positively associated with perceived stress in Study 2. Associations between microbial functional pathways (L-lysine production and formaldehyde absorption) and RSA are discussed. Findings suggest that certain features of the gut microbiome are differentially associated with each stress domain.

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A Critique of Automated Approaches to Code Facial Expressions: What Do Researchers Need to Know?

July 2023

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37 Reads

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13 Citations

Affective Science

Facial expression recognition software is becoming more commonly used by affective scientists to measure facial expressions. Although the use of this software has exciting implications, there are persistent and concerning issues regarding the validity and reliability of these programs. In this paper, we highlight three of these issues: biases of the programs against certain skin colors and genders; the common inability of these programs to capture facial expressions made in non-idealized conditions (e.g., “in the wild”); and programs being forced to adopt the underlying assumptions of the specific theory of emotion on which each software is based. We then discuss three directions for the future of affective science in the area of automated facial coding. First, researchers need to be cognizant of exactly how and on which data sets the machine learning algorithms underlying these programs are being trained. In addition, there are several ethical considerations, such as privacy and data storage, surrounding the use of facial expression recognition programs. Finally, researchers should consider collecting additional emotion data, such as body language, and combine these data with facial expression data in order to achieve a more comprehensive picture of complex human emotions. Facial expression recognition programs are an excellent method of collecting facial expression data, but affective scientists should ensure that they recognize the limitations and ethical implications of these programs.


The association of negative mood with automatic and effortful facial expression mimicry

April 2023

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139 Reads

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2 Citations

The natural process of mimicking the facial expressions of others is well established, as are the deficits in this reflexive behavior for individuals with clinical disorders such as depression. This study examines the extent of this deficit in non-clinical individuals with high transient negative mood, and whether it extends to both automatic and effortful emotion expression behavior. One hundred and thirty-six participants were shown happy, sad, and neutral faces, while electromyography (EMG) recorded facial muscle responses. Automatic (reflexive) mimicry was assessed while participants simply viewed facially expressive photographs, while effortful mimicry was monitored when individuals were told to intentionally copy the expressions in the photographs. Results indicated that high levels of negative mood were primarily associated with deficits in effortful mimicry of happy expressions, although some similar evidence was found in automatic mimicry of happy faces. Surprisingly, there were also ties between negative moods and inaccuracies in effortful mimicry of sad expressions (but not automatic mimicry). Inaccurate automatic and effortful mimicry were also tied with lower self-reported social support and greater loneliness. These results indicate that even in healthy individuals, transient and minor changes in negative mood are tied to deficiencies in facial mimicry at both the automatic and effortful level.


How and Why Could Smiling Influence Physical Health? A Conceptual Review

March 2022

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1,507 Reads

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8 Citations

Smiling has been a topic of interest to psychologists for decades, with a myriad of studies tying this behavior to well-being. Despite this, we know surprisingly little about the nature of the connections between smiling and physical health. We review the literature connecting both naturally occurring smiles and experimentally manipulated smiles to physical health and health-relevant outcomes. This work is discussed in the context of existing affect and health-relevant theoretical models that help explain the connection between smiling and physical health including the facial feedback hypothesis, the undoing hypothesis, the generalized unsafety theory of stress, and polyvagal theory. We also describe a number of plausible pathways, some new and relatively untested, through which smiling may influence physical health such as trait or state positive affect, social relationships, stress buffering, and the oculocardiac reflex. Finally, we provide a discussion of possible future directions, including the importance of cultural variation and replication. Although this field is still in its infancy, the findings from both naturally occurring smile studies and experimentally manipulated smile studies consistently suggest that smiling may have a number of health-relevant benefits including beneficially impacting our physiology during acute stress, improved stress recovery, and reduced illness over time.


Comparing, Differentiating, and Applying Affective Facial Coding Techniques for the Assessment of Positive Emotion

February 2022

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250 Reads

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13 Citations

Coding of facial expressions is a simple, fast, inexpensive, and straightforward method to complement self-report research. This approach is particularly relevant for assessing psychological factors such as positive emotion that may be particularly susceptible to self-report biases. The goals of this paper are to 1) provide convincing evidence that this well-validated method should be used in emotion research and 2) provide information about specific facial coding techniques to investigators who are looking to incorporate these methods into their research. We discuss the value, strengths, weaknesses, and applications of four techniques: facial electromyography (EMG), the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), computerized approaches, and modified/simplified hand coding techniques. Taken together, this paper provides a foundation from which researchers can integrate comprehensive and objective assessments of positive emotion into their investigations of human behavior and lays the groundwork for future research to build upon these facial analysis techniques.


The Subcomponents of Affect Scale (SAS): Validating a Widely Used Affect Scale

November 2021

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91 Reads

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9 Citations

Objective There is a need for a brief affect scale that also encompasses different components of affect relevant for researchers interested in physiological and health outcomes. The Subcomponents of Affect Scale (SAS) meets this need. This 18-item scale has nine positive and nine negative affect items encompassing six subscales (calm, well-being, vigour, depression, anxiety, anger). Previous research using the SAS has demonstrated its predictive validity, but no work has tested its subscale structure or longitudinal validity. Design Data from the Common Cold Project in which individuals (N = 610) completed the SAS over the course of seven days were used. Results Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated the reliability of the subscale structure of the SAS across seven days (positive affect subscale structure: CFIs ≥ 0.98; negative affect subscale structure: CFIs ≥ 0.94 with day 6 CFI = 0.91) and tests of factorial invariance showed the scale is valid to use over time. Conclusions These results confirm the psychometric validity of the subscale structure of the SAS and imply that the subscales can be used longitudinally, allowing for its use in health research as well as non-health research that can benefit from its subscale structure and longitudinal capabilities.


Contrasting Experimentally Device-Manipulated and Device-Free Smiles

October 2019

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447 Reads

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5 Citations

Researchers in psychology have long been interested in not only studying smiles, but in examining the downstream effects of experimentally manipulated smiles. To experimentally manipulate smiles unobtrusively, participants typically hold devices (e.g., pens or chopsticks) in their mouths in a manner that activates the muscles involved in smiling. Surprisingly, despite decades of research using these methods, no study has tested to what degree these methods activate the same muscles as more natural, device-free smiles. Our study fills this gap in the literature by contrasting the magnitude of muscle activation in device-free smiles against the popular chopstick/pen manipulation. We also contrast these methods against the Smile Stick, a new device specifically designed to manipulate smiles in a comfortable and hygienic fashion. One hundred fifty-nine participants each participated in three facial expression manipulations that were held for 1 min: smile manipulation via Smile Stick, smile manipulation via chopsticks, and device-free smile. Facial electromyography was used to measure the intensity of the activation of the two main types of muscles involved in genuine, Duchenne smiling: the orbicularis oculi (a muscle group around the eyes) and the zygomaticus major (a muscle group in the cheeks). Furthermore, following each manipulation, participants rated their experience of the manipulation (i.e., comfort, fatigue, and difficulty), experienced affect (positive and negative), and levels of arousal. Results indicated that the Smile Stick and chopsticks performed equally across all measurements. Device-free smiles were rated as most comfortable but also the most fatiguing, and procured the greatest levels of positive affect and lowest levels of negative affect. Furthermore, device-free smiles resulted in significantly higher levels of both zygomaticus major (by ∼40%) and orbicularis oculi (by ∼15%) muscle activation than either the Smile Stick or chopsticks. The two devices were not different from each other in muscle activation. This study reveals that while device-free smiling procures the greatest changes in muscle activation and affect change, smiling muscle groups are activated by device manipulations, and expected changes in affect do occur, albeit to a lesser degree than device-free smiling. It also indicates that the Smile Stick is an acceptable and comparable alternative to disposable chopsticks.


Experienced and recalled pain, distress, negative affect, and positive affect by condition
Descriptive statistics of the willingness and compensation variables by condition Whole-Study Willingness M (SD) Cold-Pressor Willingness M (SD)
Correlations of experienced and recalled pain with the willingness variables Whole-Study Willingness Cold-Pressor Willingness Willingness a Compensation (Open-ended) b Compensation (13-point scale) c Willingness c Compensation c
Misremembering pain: A memory blindness approach to adding a better end

March 2019

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158 Reads

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9 Citations

Memory & Cognition

How people remember feeling in the past informs future decisions; however, memory for past emotion is subject to a number of biases. Previous research on choice blindness has shown that people often fail to notice when they are exposed to misinformation about their own decisions, preferences, and memories. This type of misinformation can influence how they later remember past events. In the present study, we examined the memory blindness effect in a new domain: memory for pain. Participants (N = 269) underwent a cold-pressor task and rated how much pain, distress, and positive and negative affect they had experienced. Later, participants were shown their pain ratings and asked to explain them. Some of the participants were shown lower pain ratings than they had actually made. In a second session, participants recalled how painful the task had been and how much distress and positive and negative affect they remembered experiencing. The results indicated that the majority of participants who were exposed to misinformation failed to detect the manipulation, and subsequently remembered the task as being less painful. The participants in the misinformation condition were not overall more willing to repeat the study tasks, but the participants who recalled less distress, less negative affect, and more positive affect were more willing to repeat the study tasks again in a future experiment. These results demonstrate the malleability of memory for painful experiences and that willingness to repeat aversive experiences may depend more on memory for affective reactions to the original experience than on memory for the physical pain itself.


Moving Beyond a One-Size-Fits-All View of Positive Affect in Health Research

August 2018

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117 Reads

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28 Citations

Current Directions in Psychological Science

Although the literature that connects positive affect (PA) to health has exploded over the last 20 years, the approach to studying this topic has remained simplistic. Specifically, researchers overwhelmingly rely on the principle that all PA is healthful, all of the time. Here, we review recent studies indicating that a more nuanced approach is valuable. In particular, we demonstrate that a more thoughtful approach to factors such as arousal, culture, timing, and measurement type results in a more complex picture of when PA is helpful and when it is not. Taking these issues into account also has implications for the types of mechanisms underlying these associations, as well as how other moderators might operate. Thus, we argue that considering these gradations will allow researchers to develop successful and theoretically based health interventions, untangle mixed findings, and enable a deeper understanding of the connection between PA and health.


Figure 1. The odds of visiting a health care center over the past year for illness, injury, mood, and preventive concerns by facial expression group. No smile is the reference group.
Say cheese? The connections between positive facial expressions in student identification photographs and health care seeking behavior

July 2018

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89 Reads

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5 Citations

This study examined whether positive facial expressions in student identification photographs were connected with a health-relevant behavior: visits to a health care center in the last year for preventive and non-preventive (e.g. illness, injury) purposes. Identification photographs were coded for degree of smile. Smiling participants were more likely to have sought preventive care versus those not smiling in their photographs, but there was no difference in non-preventive (i.e. ill health) visits. This study shows for the first time that smiling in photographs may be related to healthy behavior and complements past work connecting smiling to positive psychosocial and health outcomes.


Citations (13)


... On a physiological level, stress activates the HPA axis and alters reward processing in the brain [74]. It may also influence the gut microbiome [75], further impacting metabolic health. Additionally, stress stimulates the release of hormones and peptides including leptin, ghrelin, and neuropeptide Y [76,77] all of which play key roles in appetite regulation and energy balance. ...

Reference:

Stress-Induced Metabolic Disorders: Mechanisms, Pathologies, and Prospects
Biological, environmental, and psychological stress and the human gut microbiome in healthy adults

... Factors such as ligh�ng, angle of the face rela�ve to the camera, and par�al occlusions (e.g., wearing glasses or a hat) are key challenges [14]. Since most algorithms were trained with images of adults performing specific facial expressions, which o�en include posed and exaggerated expressions [40,41), their ability to accurately iden�fy facial expressions of children during naturalis�c interac�ons may not be as high as o�en claimed by commercial vendors. ...

A Critique of Automated Approaches to Code Facial Expressions: What Do Researchers Need to Know?
  • Citing Article
  • July 2023

Affective Science

... Emotion recognition is based on the concept of "reaction time" [51]. Specifically, based on previous findings [52], happiness is detected when a happy facial expression is maintained for at least 0.5 seconds. Since no precise criteria exist for expressions related to sadness, the reaction time for detecting it was set to 0.6 seconds, based on average values from prior studies [51,53]. ...

The association of negative mood with automatic and effortful facial expression mimicry

... PE is a temporary sensation [21] that arises from pleasurable sensations associated with accomplishing a goal or fulfilling a need [30], frequently accompanied by positive behavioral outcomes [31]. In past studies, PE has been found to initiate cognitive, social, and behavioral transformations that enhance an individual's capacity to enable them to make innovative choices, sustain their involvement, effectively address obstacles [21], and stimulate entrepreneurial awareness and enhances the likelihood of personal entrepreneurship [32][33][34].Individuals might augment their intrinsic motivation by bringing their PE to seek possible business possibilities, thereby affecting their intention to pursue entrepreneurship [35][36][37]. ...

How and Why Could Smiling Influence Physical Health? A Conceptual Review

... Emotions are important indicators of people's internal states, and understanding emotions can help predict human behavior and provide appropriate feedback. Currently, speech signal analysis, image-based facial action coding systems, and electrophysiological signal analysis are commonly used for emotion recognition [170][171][172]. Among these methods, electrophysiological signals offer high accuracy and sensitivity. ...

Comparing, Differentiating, and Applying Affective Facial Coding Techniques for the Assessment of Positive Emotion

... Jenkins et al. 37 found some unequal factor loadings between items and item covariance, so they utilised McDonald's ω to assess internal consistency as it is more robust under these conditions than Cronbach's α. They ...

The Subcomponents of Affect Scale (SAS): Validating a Widely Used Affect Scale
  • Citing Article
  • November 2021

... pens or chopsticks) in their mouths in order to activate facial muscles associated with smiling or mimic an expression intentionally (e.g. Cross et al., 2019). 2. In this paper, we refer to 'emotions' as broad psychological states and subjective experiences usually accompanied by physiological and/or behavioral changes. ...

Contrasting Experimentally Device-Manipulated and Device-Free Smiles

... Across a range of non-forensic domains, research shows that misinformation renders people vulnerable to manipulation. Over the years, experiments have shown that false information-presented by confederates, counterfeit test results, bogus norms, false physiological feedback, and the like-can substantially alter a subject's visual judgements (Asch, 1956;Sherif, 1936), beliefs (Anderson, Lepper, & Ross, 1980), social perceptions (Tajfel et al., 1971), behaviors towards other people (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968), emotional states (Schachter & Singer, 1962), self-assessments (Crocker et al., 1991), memories for observed and autobiographical events (Loftus, 2005), 'memory blindness' for one's own past feelings (Urban et al., 2019), and even certain medical outcomes, as seen in the classic placebo effect (Benedetti, 2021). ...

Reference:

Justice and Law
Misremembering pain: A memory blindness approach to adding a better end

Memory & Cognition

... Research does show that lower enjoyment of healthy food and activities translates into lower persistence at health goals (Woolley & Fishbach, 2016. However, whether positive affect actually benefits health across all cultures is less clear (Myers et al., 2018;Pressman & Cross, 2018). Additionally, while we found similar results for food and activities, activities were examined in only one experiment (experiment 3b). ...

Moving Beyond a One-Size-Fits-All View of Positive Affect in Health Research
  • Citing Article
  • August 2018

Current Directions in Psychological Science

... Moreover, one needs more than a single rater, thus increasing the cost. Working with FACS also requires high quality images and videos for raters to be able to spot the sometimes minute actions in the face and can otherwise result in loss of data (e.g., Cross and Pressman 2020). AU 6, for instance, called the cheek raiser and lid compressor, denotes the movement of the orbicularis oculi, which in a simplified sense gives the impression of crow's feet around the eyes when activated. ...

Say cheese? The connections between positive facial expressions in student identification photographs and health care seeking behavior