Emotional mimicry and smiling behaviors in schizophrenia: An ecological approach

Individuals with schizophrenia often experience social skill deficits, leading to reduced social interaction quality. Emotional mimicry, the automatic imitation of a counterpart's expression, plays a crucial role in social interactions. This study introduces a novel methodology for assessing positive emotional mimicry during a naturalistic conversation. We recruited interacting partners (n = 20), each engaging in two interactions: one with an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia (n = 20) and one with a matched healthy control (n = 20). Participants were video recorded while taking turns sharing happy personal memories during six minutes. Using OpenFace, we detected participants' emotional expressions and computed mimicry scores based on their temporal alignment. Consistent with our hypotheses, individuals with schizophrenia exhibited reduced smiling and positive emotion mimicry. Furthermore, interacting partners reported lower willingness to continue interacting with individuals with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls. This study stands out for its innovative methodology, assessing a key social skill in an ecological setting. Our findings highlight the potential of emotional mimicry training as an important intervention to improve social interaction in schizophrenia.