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There are numerous studies conducted by psychologists that support the self-perception theory, demonstrating that emotions do follow behaviors. For example, it is found that corresponding emotions (including liking, disliking, happiness, anger, etc.) were reported following from their overt behaviors, which had been manipulated by the experimenters.[4] These behaviors included making different facial expressions, gazes and postures. In the end of the experiment, subjects inferred and reported their affections and attitudes from their practiced behaviors despite the fact that they were told previously to act that way. These findings are consistent with the James-Lange theory of emotion. In 1974, James Laird conducted two experiments on how changes in facial expression can trigger changes in emotion.[5] Participants were asked to contract or relax various facial muscles, causing them to smile or frown without awareness of the nature of their expressions. Participants reported feeling more angry when frowning and happier when smiling. They also reported that cartoons viewed while they were smiling were more humorous than cartoons viewed while they were frowning. Furthermore, participants scored higher on aggression during frown trials than during smile trials, and scored higher on elation, surgency, and social affection factors during smile trials than during frown ones.[5] Laird interpreted these results as "indicating that an individual's expressive behavior mediates the quality of his emotional experience."[5] In other words, a person’s facial expression can act as a cause of an emotional state, rather than an effect. Instead of smiling because you feel happy, you can make yourself feel happy by smiling. In 2006, Tiffany Ito and her colleagues conducted two studies to investigate if changes in facial expression can trigger changes in racial bias.[6] The explicit goal of the studies was to determine 'whether facial feedback can modulate implicit racial bias as assessed by the Implicit Association Test (IAT)."[6] Participants were surreptitiously induced to smile through holding a pencil in their mouth while viewing photographs of unfamiliar black or white males or performed no somatic configuration while viewing the photographs (Study 1 only). All participants then completed the IAT with no facial manipulation. Results revealed a spreading attitude effect; people made to smile (unconsciously) at pictures of black males showed less implicit prejudice than those made to smile at pictures of white males.[6] Their attitudes change as a result of their behavior. Chaiken and Baldwin’s 1981 study on self-perception theory dealt with environmental attitudes.[7] Each participant was identified as having well or poorly defined prior attitudes toward being an environmentalist or conservationist. Participants then completed one of two versions of a questionnaire designed to bring to mind either past pro-ecology behaviors or past anti-ecology behaviors.[7] For example, questions such as “Have you ever recycled?” call to mind an individual has recycled, has engaged in environmentalist behavior. Questions like “Do you always recycle?” on the other hand, bring to mind all the times an individual did not recycle something, emphasizing a lack of environmentalist behavior. Afterward, participants’ attitudes toward being an environmentalist/conservationist were re-measured. Those with strong initial/prior attitudes toward the environment were not really affected by the salient manipulation. Those with weak prior attitudes, however, were affected. At the end, those in the pro-ecology condition (Have you ever recycled?) reported themselves as being much more pro-environment than those in the anti-ecology condition (Do you always recycle?)..[7] Bringing to mind certain past behaviors affected what people believed their attitudes to be. Evidence for the self-perception theory has also been seen in real life situations. After teenagers participated in repeated and sustained volunteering services, their attitudes were demonstrated to have shifted to be more caring and considerate towards others.[8] |
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