ArticleiScience2024
Inter-subject correlation of audience facial expressions predicts audience engagement during theatrical performances.
Article in iScience, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Intersubject correlation as a predictor of attention: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- TraceLAB: A MATLAB Toolbox for Interindividual Synchrony Analysis of Facial Expression and Head Movement Data Acquired via Trace.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Sexism in teams: Exposure to sexist comments increases emotional synchrony but eliminates its benefits for team performance.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Trace: A research media player measuring real-time audience engagement.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Consistent movement of viewers' facial keypoints while watching emotionally evocative videos.PloS one · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
During performances, audiences experience various emotional states, and these are reflected in their ongoing facial expressions. We investigated if audience engagement could be determined by measuring the inter-subject correlation (ISC) of non-invasively recorded audience facial expressions. We filmed the faces of multiple audience members at theatrical performances and determined the intensity of their different facial expressions throughout the performances. Neutral, happy, anger, and disgust expression ISCs accounted for up to 24% of the performance dramaturge's predictions of audience engagement. Expression synchrony was greater between individuals in close proximity, suggesting effects of emotional contagion or cognitive similarities between neighboring individuals, whereas expression synchrony was greatest between individuals who were younger, female, and with greater levels of empathy, showing that individual characteristics impact shared audience experiences. Together, our results show that facial expression synchronization could be used as a real-time non-invasive indicator of engagement in audiences larger than achieved using previous approaches.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.