A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Emotion Recognition and Qualitative Impressions of Armand Henrion's Self-Portraits Displaying Mixed Emotions

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State: Public
Version: Author's accepted manuscript
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_231871CF5532
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Publication sub-type
Minutes: analyse of a published work.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Emotion Recognition and Qualitative Impressions of Armand Henrion's Self-Portraits Displaying Mixed Emotions
Journal
Art & Perception
Author(s)
Müller Lauriane, Mohr Christine, Cano Caroline, Camenzind Lucia, Soborun Yanisha, Jonauskaite Domicele
ISSN
2213-4905
2213-4913
Publication state
Published
Issued date
09/11/2022
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
10
Number
4
Pages
334-360
Language
english
Notes
We wish to thank the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria, who coordinated the Helmut Klewan’s collection and kindly provided high-quality scans of Armand Henrion’s self-portraits for scientific use. They can be accessed following this link: https://osf.io/mf9t5/
Abstract
Researchers often study recognition of single emotions. Realistic faces, however, display several emotions in quick sequence or at the same time (mixed emotions). This likely causes interindividual differences in peoples’ reactions to the same situations and stimuli. We studied such differences using 11 self-portraits painted by Armand Henrion (1875-1958), in which he depicts himself as a Pierrot clown displaying different affective states. Thirty-eight adult participants (15 men) saw the self-portraits twice (one brief, then one unlimited presentation). After the first brief presentation (1-2 seconds), participants i) selected the most prominent emotion (out of 20) and ii) rated the intensity of this emotion. After the second unlimited presentation, participants performed the same selections and ratings before describing what could have caused the facial expression (qualitative data). Results confirmed that Armand Henrion’s self-portraits display mixed emotions: participants selected diverse emotions, sometimes differing in valence. Participants selected comparable emotions between presentations but rated them as more intense the second time. The qualitative answers complemented the selected emotions. For instance, when some participants chose “disgust”, while others chose “sadness” for the same self-portrait, the qualitative answer matched this choice, indicating that the character either “ate or drank something they don’t like” or “lost something or someone”. We conclude that Armand Henrion’s self-portraits provide a promising set of facial stimuli to investigate mixed emotions. Each self-portrait displays diverse emotions of varying intensities and are realistic because they could all be linked to possible situations.
Keywords
Visual Arts and Performing Arts, art, aesthetics, affect, emotion, facial expressions, mixed emotions, Ekman’s faces
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / Careers / P0LAP1_175055
Swiss National Science Foundation / Careers / P500PS_202956
Swiss National Science Foundation / Projects / 100014_182138
Create date
25/11/2022 21:57
Last modification date
19/10/2023 7:13
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