Can We Tell Winners and Losers Apart? Social and Cultural Effects on Facial Expressions of Children and Adults in Games

Can we tell winners and losers apart, on the basis of their facial expressions? In this chapter, we investigate the effects of social and cultural factors on expressions associated with winning and losing in games. Eight-year-olds and adults, who were either Dutch or Chinese, played games alone or with a classmate (children), or against a high-power and a low-power opponent (adults). In two perception experiments, video recordings of these game players were shown to judges, who had to evaluate whether the game players had won or lost the game. Results showed that judges were better at identifying the losers than the winners among children and adults. Judges also performed better when judging children who played in pairs than alone, and adults who played against a high-power than a low-power opponent. However, these effects were qualified by an interaction with the nationality of the game players.