The relative importance of context information in trustworthiness attribution of a smile: A comparison between Japan and the United Kingdom

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K23364
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0110:Psychology and related fields
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (2020-2021); Hiroshima University (2019)
• Principal Investigator: Namba Shushi 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 科技ハブ産連本部, 研究員 (20845961)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 表情 / 感情 / 笑顔

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study examined the effects of context on judgments of trustworthiness from smile. It is well known that Japanese people are culturally more context-dependent when processing information than Westerners, but few studies have focused on the "naturalness" of smiles. When presented with the contextual information "expressed in a polite situation," Japanese people were found to judge the presented smile as "less natural" than Westerners. In addition, multiple experiments revealed the complex behavior of Japanese people in diverse contexts.

Free Research Field

実験心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

社会生活における笑顔が観察者によってどのように理解され、どのような行動を引き起こすかに関する広範な現象に関する知見を本研究成果は提供した。笑顔の印象が文脈に依存しており、その度合いは日英で比較すると日本人でより大きくなる。ひいてはそうした印象が、協力行動につながる信頼感を生み出すことを明らかにしたことは、学術領域のみならず日常生活での国際理解・他者理解に対して重要な示唆を提供できたという意味で意義が大きい。