“Put your Hands up in the Air”? The interpersonal effects of pride and shame expressions on opponents and teammates

The aim of the present research was to investigate the interpersonal effects of pride and shame expressions amongst opponents and teammates in a soccer penalty scenario. Across a series of experiments using the point-light method, pride and shame expressions exerted strong effects upon observers' anticipated emotions, associated cognitions, and performance expectations. Using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) in two pilot studies we demonstrated that the created pride and shame point-light stimuli were implicitly associated with status and performance related attributes. In Experiment 1, observing pride expressions caused opponents to anticipate more negative emotions, cognitions, and lower performance expectancies toward their next performance in comparison with neutral expressions. In contrast, pride expressions led teammates to anticipate more positive emotions (i.e., pride and happiness), cognitions, and performance expectations toward their next performance than neutral expressions (Experiments 2-4). The results are discussed within the emotions as social information (EASI, Van Kleef, 2009) framework by arguing that the social context has to be taken into account when investigating the interpersonal effects of emotion expressions. In conclusion, the present research highlights the potential interpersonal influence of the nonverbal expressions of pride and shame in soccer penalty shootouts.