The similiarity of facial expressions in response to emotion-inducing films in reared-apart twins (original) (raw)

Psychological Medicine, 2007

Abstract

BackgroundWhile the role of genetic factors in self-report measures of emotion has been frequently studied, we know little about the degree to which genetic factors influence emotional facial expressions.MethodTwenty-eight pairs of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart were shown three emotion-inducing films and their facial responses recorded. These recordings were blindly scored by trained raters. Ranked correlations between twins were calculated controlling for age and sex.ResultsTwin pairs were significantly correlated for facial expressions of general positive emotions, happiness, surprise and anger, but not for general negative emotions, sadness, or disgust or average emotional intensity. MZ pairs (n=18) were more correlated than DZ pairs (n=10) for most but not all emotional expressions.ConclusionsSince these twin pairs had minimal contact with each other prior to testing, these results support significant genetic effects on ...

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