Searching for emotion or race: Task-irrelevant facial cues have asymmetrical effects (original) (raw)
Related papers
Searching for differences in race: Is there evidence for preferential detection of other-race faces?
Emotion, 2009
Previous research has suggested that like animal and social fear-relevant stimuli, other-race faces (African American) are detected preferentially in visual search. Three experiments using Chinese or Indonesian faces as other-race faces yielded the opposite pattern of results: faster detection of same-race faces among other-race faces. This apparently inconsistent pattern of results was resolved by showing that Asian and African American faces are detected preferentially in tasks that have small stimulus sets and employ fixed target searches. Asian and African American other-race faces are found slower among Caucasian face backgrounds if larger stimulus sets are used in tasks with a variable mapping of stimulus to background or target. Thus, preferential detection of other-race faces was not found under task conditions in which preferential detection of animal and social fear-relevant stimuli is evident. Although consistent with the view that same-race faces are processed in more detail than other-race faces, the current findings suggest that other-race faces do not draw attention preferentially.
Search asymmetries with real faces: Testing the anger-superiority effect
Emotion, 2006
The anger-superiority hypothesis states that angry faces are detected more efficiently than friendly faces. Previously research used schematized stimuli, which minimizes perceptual confounds, but violates ecological validity. The authors argue that a confounding of appearance and meaning is unavoidable and even unproblematic if real faces are presented. Four experiments tested carefully controlled photos in a search-asymmetry design. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed more efficient detection of an angry face among happy faces than vice versa. Experiment 3 indicated that the advantage was due to the mouth, but not to the eyes, and Experiment 4, using upright and inverted thatcherized faces, suggests a perceptual basis. The results are in line with a sensory-bias hypothesis that facial expressions evolved to exploit extant capabilities of the visual system.
Detecting emotional faces and features in a visual search paradigm: Are faces special?
Emotion, 2006
In 2 experiments, participants were presented schematic faces with emotional expressions (threatening, friendly) in a neutral-faces context or neutral expressions in an emotional-faces context. These conditions were compared with detection performance in displays containing key features of emotional faces not forming the perceptual gestalt of a face. Supporting the notion of a threat detection advantage, Experiment 1 found that threatening faces were faster detected than friendly faces, whereas no difference emerged between the corresponding feature conditions. Experiment 2 increased task difficulty with a backward masking procedure and found corresponding results. In neither of the studies was the threat detection advantage associated with reduced accuracy. However, features were, in general, detected faster than faces when task difficulty was high.
Visual search for emotional expressions: Effect of stimulus set on anger and happiness superiority
Cognition & emotion, 2015
Prior reports of preferential detection of emotional expressions in visual search have yielded inconsistent results, even for face stimuli that avoid obvious expression-related perceptual confounds. The current study investigated inconsistent reports of anger and happiness superiority effects using face stimuli drawn from the same database. Experiment 1 excluded procedural differences as a potential factor, replicating a happiness superiority effect in a procedure that previously yielded an anger superiority effect. Experiments 2a and 2b confirmed that image colour or poser gender did not account for prior inconsistent findings. Experiments 3a and 3b identified stimulus set as the critical variable, revealing happiness or anger superiority effects for two partially overlapping sets of face stimuli. The current results highlight the critical role of stimulus selection for the observation of happiness or anger superiority effects in visual search even for face stimuli that avoid obvio...
2013
Previous research has provided inconsistent results regarding visual search for emotional faces, yielding evidence for either anger superiority (i.e., more efficient search for angry faces) or happiness superiority effects (i.e., more efficient search for happy faces), suggesting that these results do not reflect on emotional expression, but on emotion (un-)related low-level perceptual features. The present study investigated possible factors mediating anger/happiness superiority effects, specifically search strategy (fixed vs. variable target search; Experiment 1), stimulus choice (Nimstim database vs. Ekman & Friesen database; Experiments 1 & 2), and emotional intensity (Experiment 3 & 3a). Angry faces were found faster than happy faces regardless of search strategy using faces from the Nimstim database (Experiment 1). By contrast, a happiness superiority effect was evident in Experiment 2 when using faces from the Ekman and Friesen database. Experiment 3 employed angry, happy, an...
Attention, perception & psychophysics, 2017
The magnitude of the happy categorisation advantage, the faster recognition of happiness than negative expressions, is influenced by facial race and sex cues. Previous studies have investigated these relationships using racial outgroups stereotypically associated with physical threat in predominantly Caucasian samples. To determine whether these influences generalise to stimuli representing other ethnic groups and to participants of different ethnicities, Caucasian Australian (Experiments 1 and 2) and Chinese participants (Experiment 2) categorised happy and angry expressions displayed on own-race male faces presented with emotional other-race male, own-race female, and other-race female faces in separate tasks. The influence of social category cues on the happy categorisation advantage was similar in the Australian and Chinese samples. In both samples, the happy categorisation advantage was present for own-race male faces when they were encountered with other-race male faces but re...
At face value: Categorization goals modulate vigilance for angry faces
The present research demonstrates that the attention bias to angry faces is modulated by how people categorize these faces. Since facial expressions contain psychologically meaningful information for social categorizations (i.e., gender, personality) but not for nonsocial categorizations (i.e., eye-color), angry facial expressions should especially capture attention during social categorization tasks. Indeed, in three studies, participants were slower to name the gender of angry compared to happy or neutral faces, but not their color (blue or green; Study 1) or eye-color (blue or brown; Study 2). Furthermore, when different eye-colors were linked to a personality trait (introversion, extraversion) versus sensitivity to light frequencies (high, low), angry faces only slowed down categorizations when eye-color was indicative of a social characteristic (Study 3). Thus, vigilance for angry facial expressions is contingent on people’s categorization goals, supporting the perspective that even basic attentional processes are moderated by social influences.
In search of the emotional face: Anger versus happiness superiority in visual search
Emotion, 2013
Previous research has provided inconsistent results regarding visual search for emotional faces, yielding evidence for either anger superiority (i.e., more efficient search for angry faces) or happiness superiority effects (i.e., more efficient search for happy faces), suggesting that these results do not reflect on emotional expression, but on emotion (un-)related low-level perceptual features. The present study investigated possible factors mediating anger/happiness superiority effects; specifically search strategy (fixed vs. variable target search; Experiment 1), stimulus choice (Nimstim database vs. Ekman & Friesen database; Experiments 1 and 2), and emotional intensity (Experiment 3 and 3a). Angry faces were found faster than happy faces regardless of search strategy using faces from the Nimstim database (Experiment 1). By contrast, a happiness superiority effect was evident in Experiment 2 when using faces from the Ekman and Friesen database. Experiment 3 employed angry, happy, and exuberant expressions (Nimstim database) and yielded anger and happiness superiority effects, respectively, highlighting the importance of the choice of stimulus materials. Ratings of the stimulus materials collected in Experiment 3a indicate that differences in perceived emotional intensity, pleasantness, or arousal do not account for differences in search efficiency. Across three studies, the current investigation indicates that prior reports of anger or happiness superiority effects in visual search are likely to reflect on low-level visual features associated with the stimulus materials used, rather than on emotion.
Cognition & emotion, 2015
Individuals spontaneously categorise other people on the basis of their gender, ethnicity and age. But what about the emotions they express? In two studies we tested the hypothesis that facial expressions are similar to other social categories in that they can function as contextual cues to control attention. In Experiment 1 we associated expressions of anger and happiness with specific proportions of congruent/incongruent flanker trials. We also created consistent and inconsistent category members within each of these two general contexts. The results demonstrated that participants exhibited a larger congruency effect when presented with faces in the emotional group associated with a high proportion of congruent trials. Notably, this effect transferred to inconsistent members of the group. In Experiment 2 we replicated the effects with faces depicting true and false smiles. Together these findings provide consistent evidence that individuals spontaneously utilise emotions to catego...
Facilitated detection of angry faces: Initial orienting and processing efficiency
Cognition & Emotion, 2006
In a visual search task, displays of four schematic faces (angry, sad, happy, or neutral) were presented. Participants decided whether the faces were all the same or whether one was different. A discrepant angry face in a context of three neutral faces was detected faster than other faces. This occurred in the absence of a higher probability of first fixation on the angry face. Moreover, angry faces were more accurately detected even when presented parafoveally. These results are not consistent with the hypothesis that angry faces are detected faster because they are looked at earlier. In contrast, angry faces were looked at less than other faces during the search process and were more accurately detected than other faces when the display duration was reduced to 150 ms. These results support the processing efficiency hypothesis, according to which fewer attentional resources are needed to identify angry faces, which would account for their speeded detection time. In addition, parafoveal analysis of the angry faces may start preattentively, which would account for the fewer and shorter fixations that they need later, when they come under the focus of attention.