Integrating context and emotions: Top-down effects of intent on mimicry and contagion.

Abstract

Emotions are always expressed and perceived in context. Context can provide key information about the meaning of the emotional expression, such as cues regarding the expresser's intentions. We examined how contextually inferred intent (Study 1, N = 212) as well as explicitly stated intent (Study 2, N = 229) shape emotion perception (accuracy/bias), interpersonal closeness, emotional contagion, and emotional mimicry. A further goal was to assess whether mimicry and contagion are tightly coupled or can dissociate depending on how the expression is interpreted in context. In Study 1, adolescent avatars expressed happiness or sadness in scenarios wherein the context suggested that the expression was either normative (norm consistent) or nonnormative (norm challenging). In Study 2, videos of adult avatars in wedding/funeral scenes were paired with benevolent versus malicious intent captions that were explicitly normative or nonnormative. Across studies, nonnormative, ill-intentioned expressions were evaluated more negatively, reduced closeness, altered emotion attributions, elicited negative emotional reactions, and reduced contagion (especially for nonnormative/malicious smiles). Mimicry was highly selective such that it robustly occurred only for well-intentioned, normative smiles. Overall, the pattern supports a dual-path account in which mimicry and contagion are partly separable rather than tightly coupled. Specifically, both mimicry and contagion varied with how observers interpret the expresser's intent. However, mimicry, which is a visible response, was additionally constrained by the social cost of public alignment. Our samples (collected in 2023 and 2024) consisted primarily of female, university-educated participants from a Western cultural context; findings should be interpreted with this limitation in mind. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).