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Publication
Comparing fear and anxiety chemosignals: Do they modulate facial muscle activity and facilitate identifying facial expressions?
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Fear and anxiety are the most frequently studied emotional states in chemosignal research. Despite differences between these two emotional
states, findings from research using fear and anxiety body odors (BOs) are often treated as part of a similar phenomenon. In this article, we
examine possible similarities and differences between participants exposed to fear and anxiety BOs on 2 dependent variables commonly used in
chemosignals’ research: (1) the activation of facial muscles in displays of fear expressions (i.e. the medial frontalis and the corrugator supercilii);
and (2) the time required to discriminate between negative emotional expressions (fear, anger, and disgust) and neutral ones. Our results show
that fear (vs. rest) and anxiety (vs. exercise) BOs activate the medial frontalis, suggesting that both have a similar impact on receivers’ facial
muscles. However, we could not replicate previous findings regarding the influence of fear BOs in discriminating negative emotional faces from
neutral ones. Two additional replication attempts failed to replicate the earlier results, indicating that the results reported in the literature with
this specific paradigm should be interpreted cautiously. Suggestions for future research examining possible differences between fear and anxiety
BOs are advanced.
Description
Keywords
Fear Anxiety Body odors Facial electromyography Emotion discrimination Chemosensory communication
Citation
Gomes, N., Semin, G. R., Pause, B. M., & Smeets, M. A. M. (2023). Comparing fear and anxiety chemosignals: Do they modulate facial muscle activity and facilitate identifying facial expressions? Chemical Senses, 48. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjad016
Publisher
Oxford University Press