Mona Lisa is always happy - and only sometimes sad

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Art Perception
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• The Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile has captivated audiences for centuries.
• Facial emotional ambiguity is a key area of study in psychology and cognitive science.
• Mouth curvature is a significant factor in perceiving facial emotions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how manipulating Mona Lisa's mouth curvature affects emotional perception.
• To determine the influence of different stimulus ranges on the perception of facial emotions.
• To analyze the relationship between perceived emotion, confidence, and reaction times.

Main Methods:

• Participants viewed variants of the Mona Lisa with altered mouth curvatures.
• Two experimental conditions used different stimulus ranges along a happy-sad emotional axis.
• Participants reported perceived emotion and confidence in their responses.

Main Results:

• Perceived happiness of Mona Lisa variants followed sigmoidal functions of mouth curvature.
• Participant confidence was lowest near the inflection points of these functions.
• Response times were faster for happy than for sad faces, and functions varied by condition.

Conclusions:

• The original Mona Lisa may be less emotionally ambiguous than commonly believed.
• Facial emotion perception is relative and highly dependent on the context of presented stimuli.
• The range of emotional expressions significantly impacts how facial emotions are interpreted.