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Politics doesn’t leave you indifferent? Know that your face, through its expressions, can betray your preferences and reveal what you think of a political figure. And science confirms it!
In a new study published in PLOS One researchers found that our facial expressions, particularly the subtle movements around our eyes, can reveal our political leanings. For example, left-leaning participants studied showed different facial reactions when reading about politicians from their political affiliation, compared to those from the right.
In search of facial stimuli
The researchers conducted their study at the University of Bologna, with about thirty undergraduate students who identified as left-wing. The participants, mostly women, with an average age of 22, were selected based on their political identification (towards the left-wing spectrum, therefore). The study aimed to measure their spontaneous facial reactions to reading sentences describing the expressions of politicians. Each participant had to read sentences describing politicians without knowing that their facial muscle activity was being measured via electrodes attached to facial muscles. These sentences appeared on a computer screen, describing a left-wing or right-wing politician smiling or frowning.
Facial muscle activity was recorded using electromyography (EMG), focusing on three key muscles: the zygomaticus major (which causes the lips to smile), the orbicularis oculi (which creates wrinkles around the eyes), and the corrugator brow (which causes a smile). The researchers observed significant differences in facial muscle reactions when participants read the expressions of politicians from their political side (ingroup) or from the opposite side (outgroup) to their political family.
Facial expressions are different depending on our adherence to a political personality.
The zygomaticus major showed higher activation when participants read expressions of left-wing politicians compared to outgroup (right-wing) politicians. Activation of this muscle increased steadily and progressively.
Conversely, when reading expressions of ingroup politicians (the left), there was a suppression of major zygomaticus activity. These results indicate that participants responded with a more pronounced smile when reading about the smiles of ingroup politicians.
The orbicularis oculi, which signals a genuine smile by creating wrinkles around the eyes, also showed higher activation when participants read that politicians in their group were smiling. Activity in this muscle peaked early, about 500 to 1,000 milliseconds after the stimulus onset, suggesting a rapid response to the positive affect of ingroup politicians.
In contrast, the orbicularis oculi showed lower activation when participants read that out-group politicians were frowning, further supporting the idea that smiles from in-group politicians elicited more genuinely positive reactions.
On the frown side, when ingroup politicians smiled, there was a suppression of corrugator supercilii activity. This indicates that participants had stronger frown responses to the frowns of politicians in their political group and a reduced frown response to their smiles.
Feel good in your body, feel good in your head!
When membership is read on the face
Although the study provides evidence of a link between political alignment and facial reactions, it has limitations that should be considered. The study had a relatively small sample of thirty participants, mostly women and left-leaning, which limits the generalizability of the results. “Future studies should include a more diverse and larger sample” the researchers say. Additionally, the study focused on immediate facial reactions within 3 seconds of reading each sentence. Further research could explore longer-term reactions and how facial expressions change over long periods of time.
“Despite these limitations, our results are the first to highlight how language and social information can shape the embodied mechanisms underlying facial reactivity, which may be particularly relevant in the domain of social and political communication,” the researchers wrote.
Understanding these reactions could provide insight into how nonverbal cues and language influence political preferences.