Context is more powerful than we think: Contextual cues override facial cues even for valence

Abstract

Context-the external situation-overrides facial information when judging the emotion from spontaneous facial expressions, even on valence. Observers (N = 60) judged the emotion in each of 15 facial expressions of athletes in the 2012 Olympics who had just won or lost their respective event. Observers were given either correct, incorrect, or no information about the results of the event. Context consistently overrode facial information, regardless of what the facial expression displayed.