Two studies are reported that investigate whether facial expressions may influence judgments of fame. In the current research, the authors tested the hypothesis of whether feelings of mental effort influence judgments of fame. To test this hypothesis, participants were required to contract the corrugator muscle while judging the fame of persons depicted in a photo. In Experiment 1, participants who succeeded in maintaining the contraction during the entire task evaluated the targets to be less famous than did judges who did not succeed or were not required to engage in any facial contraction. In the second experiment, participants’ success at their muscle contraction was monitored by electromyograph (EMG) feedback and a control group had to activate a different (frontalis) facial muscle. The fame effect was replicated under those conditions. The present findings suggest that facial expressions may modify nonemotional feelings and the judgments that are based on them.
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