THE ART OF PERCEPTION: A STUDY OF ARTISTS AND FACIAL MIMICRY

Katelyn Swann

Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Harley, Heidi

Keywords

Art, Mimicry, Emotions, Psychology

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Facial mimicry occurs in many settings and has many effects, e.g., on mood, but it has not been studied in artists when they draw faces. Previous data suggest that facial mimicry of happy faces begins and occurs mostly on the lower half of the face but mimicry of angry faces occurs mostly in the upper half of the face. In the current study, the facial expressions of 17 participants with a college-level art background were recorded while they drew a happy and an angry expression on the computer using a digital drawing tablet. The video recordings were split into 2: 1 with the participant’s face and the other of their emerging drawings. The split videos were then coded for the amount of time upper and lower facial expressions occurred in each artist as they drew. The results of the experiment showed that the artists expressed for longer times with the lower half of their faces when drawing the lower half of the happy face, and artists expressed more with the upper half of their faces when drawing the upper half of the angry face (vs. the happy faces). These data suggest artists engage in facial mimicry while drawing expressive faces.

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