Abstract
To navigate the social world, we must recognize and communicate about rules and norms through a variety of channels, including language, gestures, and facial expressions. This is quite a feat, because social rules are often highly intricate. For example, during play, a general norm (e.g. not hitting one another) may not apply within a specific context (e.g. a pillow fight) — a concept known in game studies as the ‘magic circle’. Could the presence of such a hierarchically embedded rule system be communicated by a single facial expression? In other words, is there a ‘face of mischief’? In Study 1, we used a reverse correlation approach to determine whether there is a stereotyped facial expression signaling mischievous intent. Subjects viewed pairs of faces with opposite noise patterns superimposed, and reported which of the two faces looked more like someone plotting to do something mischievous. The average of their selected faces had an expression which looked distinctly mischievous, and this was confirmed by an independent sample of raters. In Study 2, we investigated whether the face of mischief signals the intent to violate a norm within the bounds of a magic circle. Each subject read one of three types of social scenarios — Magic Circle + Harm (e.g. having a pillow fight); Magic Circle + No Harm (e.g. building a pillow fort); or No Magic Circle + Harm (e.g. stealing pillows from a hotel) — and for several pairs of faces, judged which one better matched the described behavior. An independent group of observers rated the average selected face for the Magic Circle + Harm scenarios as much more mischievous than the averages for the other scenarios. These results show that there is a distinct face of mischief, and that this expression communicates nuanced meaning about playful norm violations.