What is in a smile: The role of evaluation goal and response labels in facial muscle responses to prejudiced groups.

Based on the assumption that valence is permanently linked to facial responses, we expected that the corrugator muscle is contracted faster in response to overweight persons than to slim persons, whereas we expected faster contractions of the zygomaticus muscle in response to slim persons rather than to overweight persons. To detect such differences, we conducted experiments with different versions of a facial stimulus-response compatibility task that required participants to respond with the two facial muscles to photos of overweight or slim persons. Contrary to the assumption that valence is permanently linked to facial responses, in Experiments 1 and 2, social categories (overweight vs.

Looks like power: Automatic processing of power cues from briefly presented primes.

Power, as a ubiquitous feature of social relations, is frequently used in information processing. Due to its relevance for social interactions, we expected that power is automatically processed. In three experiments, participants categorized stimuli in a response window priming procedure as either powerful or power-neutral.