Social cognition
How Face Feedback Drives Learning and Generosity
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Receiving feedback through facial expressions makes people more generous and helps them learn social norms better than abstract symbols do.
Key findings
The researchers found that participants who received social feedback tipped more generously and aligned closer to the underlying norms. Specifically, the social group tipped more by 1, 4.9, and 8.2 percent in the respective blocks. Computer modeling showed that this difference was driven by social feedback making participants less sensitive to the economic costs of tipping.
Methodology
In separate experiments, the researchers tested groups of forty university students playing a computerized game. In the initial experiment, the task consisted of three blocks of trials where participants decided how much to tip virtual servers. They received either social feedback in the form of facial expressions, or non-social feedback in the form of symbols.
Limitations
The study has several limitations. One limitation is that the observed effect sizes of social versus non-social feedback were quite small. Another limitation is that the researchers used highly unreliable feedback schedules, which made learning difficult for all participants. Finally, because the facial expressions combined both social and emotional dimensions, the design cannot determine whether the findings were driven by the social nature of the faces or just their emotional valence.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
Using socially realistic feedback, such as facial expressions, in learning tasks alters participant behavior by making them more generous and less sensitive to economic costs compared to using abstract symbols.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
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