Mariëlle Stel - Research interests

Mariëlle is interested in the dynamics of human interaction. One line of research she has developed aims to obtain more insight into why people mimic each others nonverbal expressions and when this mimicry occurs. For example, Mariëlle focuses on the role of mimicry in understanding the emotions of others. This research shows that copying the behaviors of others makes people more emotionally attuned to each other. Mimickers and mimickees understand each other better and are more likely to help each other, and other people around them. They are also more likely to vote for a political party supporting prosocial issues.

Another line of research is on the elicitation, detection, and consequences of deception. For instance, Mariëlle is interested in people’s ability to detect deception from nonverbal expressions and in factors that contribute to this ability. This research shows, for example, that people's abilities to distinguish truths from lies differ for positive and negative emotional expressions. When asked to estimate a person's true feelings, people can accurately distinguish between true and false negative expressive faces, but are unable to tell from a positive facial expressions whether the person truly experiences these positive emotions.