Inferring competence from others' expressions of surprise

Reasoning about emotional expressions is foundational to human social life. Building on research on people's intuitive understanding of emotional expressions, we asked whether adults (Exp.1, n=60) and 6- to 8-year-old children (Exp.2, n=90) use surprised reactions to people's failures or successes to infer their relative competence. Participants saw scenarios where two students both failed or succeeded on a task, but a teacher expressed surprise to only one of them. When the students succeeded, adults and children inferred that the one who did not elicit surprise was better; when the students failed, the pattern reversed. These results suggest that emotional expressions can lead to inferences about abstract qualities of individuals. Even non-valenced expressions of surprise enable humans to engage in social comparison and infer who is "better" despite identical performance outcomes.