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The similiarity of facial expressions in response to emotion-inducing films in reared-apart twins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2007

K. S. Kendler ,
L. J. Halberstadt ,
F. Butera ,
J. Myers ,
T. Bouchard  and
P. Ekman
K. S. Kendler*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA Department of Human Genetics, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
L. J. Halberstadt
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
F. Butera
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
J. Myers
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
T. Bouchard
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
P. Ekman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: K. S. Kendler, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. USA. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

While the role of genetic factors in self-report measures of emotion has been frequently studied, we know little about the degree to which genetic factors influence emotional facial expressions.

Method

Twenty-eight pairs of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart were shown three emotion-inducing films and their facial responses recorded. These recordings were blindly scored by trained raters. Ranked correlations between twins were calculated controlling for age and sex.

Results

Twin pairs were significantly correlated for facial expressions of general positive emotions, happiness, surprise and anger, but not for general negative emotions, sadness, or disgust or average emotional intensity. MZ pairs (n=18) were more correlated than DZ pairs (n=10) for most but not all emotional expressions.

Conclusions

Since these twin pairs had minimal contact with each other prior to testing, these results support significant genetic effects on the facial display of at least some human emotions in response to standardized stimuli. The small sample size resulted in estimated twin correlations with very wide confidence intervals.

Keywords

Emotionfacial expressiongeneticstwin
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 38 , Issue 10 , October 2008 , pp. 1475 - 1483
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Cambridge University Press

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