Spontaneous facial expressivity predicts real-world social network size and richness.

Eithne Kavanagh, Alisa Balabanova, Jasmine Rollings, Robin I M Dunbar, Jamie Whitehouse, Bridget M Waller

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in iScience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Eithne KavanaghDepartment of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.

Alisa BalabanovaDepartment of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.

Jasmine RollingsDepartment of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.

Robin I M DunbarDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Jamie WhitehouseDepartment of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.

Bridget M WallerDepartment of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Humans have highly expressive faces, yet from an evolutionary perspective, the adaptive benefit of such expressivity remains unclear. One possibility is that facial expressivity confers social benefits. Here, we provide empirical support for this idea by demonstrating associations between individual-level facial expressivity and social network metrics. We recorded spontaneous social interaction across five studies (

Indexed as

PsychologySocial interactionSocial sciences

Identifiers

PMID42291190

DOI10.1016/j.isci.2026.115972

PMCPMC13253098

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY

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Registered trials

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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.