Fritz Strack
German social psychologist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fritz Strack (born February 6, 1950)[1] is a German social psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Würzburg.[2] Strack is a member of Germany's National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for psychology in 2019.[3]
Fritz Strack | |
|---|---|
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| Born | February 6, 1950 |
| Education | University of Mannheim Stanford University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Social psychology |
| Institutions | University of Würzburg |
He was the lead author of a frequently cited[4][failed verification] 1988 study that provided support for the facial feedback hypothesis.
Study on facial feedback
Strack's study asked participants to hold a pen in their mouths in such a way as to make them either smile or frown, and then had them rate how funny a series of the Far Side cartoons were. In this study, participants who were smiling rated the cartoons as funnier, on average, compared to those who were frowning.[5] In 2016, a study by a separate research team was published which failed to replicate the original study's results.[6][7] Strack himself suggested[8] that the negative results of the replication study may have been caused by its researchers' use of a video camera to record the participants' responses. He also took issue with the replication study's choice of the same cartoons that had originally been used in 1985.[9] Subsequent research has supported Strack's claim that participants knowing they are being recorded by cameras led to the replication study's negative result.[10][11] Further evidence has provided additional support for both the pen procedure and the validity of the facial-feedback hypothesis.[12][13]
