FACIAL EMG IN AN ANGER-PROVOKING SITUATION - INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN DIRECTING ANGER OUTWARDS OR INWARDS

This study was designed to examine whether facial EMG reactions occurr ed while subjects experienced anger. All subjects (n = 60) were requir ed to perform an intelligence test. Randomly chosen subjects (n = 40) received negative feedback irrespective of their actual test achieveme nt. The remaining twenty subjects served as control group and received neutral feedback. While all subjects received their feedback, facial EMG was recorded over the mm. frontalis lateralis, corrugator supercil ii, orbicularis oculi, and zygomaticus major. In addition, anger and f ear self-reports were measured. Those subjects receiving negative feed back were post-hoc divided into two groups. One group comprised subjec ts verbally expressing their anger toward the experimenter (anger-out group, n = 19) while the other anger group comprised subjects who were angry with themselves (anger-in group, n = 18). Facial EMG reactions over the m. frontalis and m. corrugator were only evident for the ange r-out group while they received negative feedback. In addition, intens ity of anger self-reports were unrelated to facial EMG reactions. It i s hypothesized that the anger-out group implicitly communicated with t he experimenter by generating facial anger displays including mm. fron talis and corrugator EMG activity. Thus, these results were taken as e vidence that facial displays are communicative tools used to communica te with an interactant although he/she is not physically present (impl icit audience).