The spatio-temporal features of perceived-as-genuine and deliberate expressions

Reading the genuineness of facial expressions is important for increasing the credibility of information conveyed by faces. However, it remains unclear which spatio-temporal characteristics of facial movements serve as critical cues to the perceived genuineness of facial expressions. This study focused on observable spatio-temporal differences between perceived-as-genuine and deliberate expressions of happiness and anger expressions. In this experiment, 89 Japanese participants were asked to judge the perceived genuineness of faces in videos showing happiness or anger expressions. To identify diagnostic facial cues to the perceived genuineness of the facial expressions, we analyzed a total of 128 face videos using an automated facial action detection system; thereby, moment-to-moment activations in facial action units were annotated, and nonnegative matrix factorization extracted sparse and meaningful components from all action units data. The results showed that genuineness judgments reduced when more spatial patterns were observed in facial expressions. As for the temporal features, the perceived-as-deliberate expressions of happiness generally had faster onsets to the peak than the perceived-as-genuine expressions of happiness. Moreover, opening the mouth negatively contributed to the perceived-as-genuine expressions, irrespective of the type of facial expressions. These findings provide the first evidence for dynamic facial cues to the perceived genuineness of happiness and anger expressions.