Naturalistic expressions require explicit inferences to guide prosocial behavior

Contemporary theories of emotion highlight the fundamental function of emotional expressions in regulating social behavior. Yet, this basic premise relies mostly on studies using posed expressions which may diverge from naturalistic portrayals and invite explicit affective inferences due to their salient symbolic nature. Across three studies (N=1,529), we examined how naturalistic expressions differentially shape affective judgments and prosocial behaviors. Participants watched authentic videos of people in distress expressing typical versus atypical real-life crying vocalizations and either inferred the targets’ affect or donated real money to help them. Perceivers were sensitive to targets’ vocal variation when explicitly inferring affect, but not when making donation decisions without explicit inference instructions. Importantly, when perceivers explicitly inferred affect before donating, their overall donations increased and showed higher sensitivity to vocal variation. Together, these findings suggest that explicit inferential processes are central for establishing the connection between emotional expressions and prosocial behavior in everyday life.