Cynical hostility and the accuracy of decoding facial expressions of emotions

To examine the relation between cynical hostility and the accuracy of decoding facial expressions of emotions, 101 young adult participants completed the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and Ekman's Pictures of Facial Affect. Results revealed that higher hostility scores were correlated with a greater number of errors in decoding facial expressions of emotions. Hostile individuals were more likely than nonhostile individuals to label inaccurately facial expressions of "disgust" as being "anger" and of "happiness" as being "neutral." Results also revealed that males were more likely than females to label incorrectly facial expressions of disgust as anger. Partial correlations, controlling for gender, revealed that the relation between hostility and inaccurate perceptions of facial portrayals of happiness was significant, whereas the relation between hostility and inaccurate perceptions of facial displays of disgust was no longer significant.     

Emotional display rules of Japanese and Koreans

Hypothetical stories designed to arouse feelings of happiness, sadness, or anger were presented to Japanese (n = 310) and Koreans (n = 286) university students. They were asked to rate the intensity of the emotion experienced, and to select the corresponding facial expression to display in an individual situation and in a social situation. Analyses of covariance were conducted on the rating scores of facial expression using the intensities of emotion as the covariance, except for happiness where the within-class regression coefficients were not homogeneous. The results showed that Japanese and Koreans shared the emotional display rules about the expressions of emotions in individual situations more than in social situations. Japanese thought that they should suppress emotions more than Koreans did. Moreover, the differences in facial expressions between Japanese and Koreans were greater in the individual situations than in the social situations.     

Effects of believes and expectations about self and others on emotional recognition of facial expressions: from the perspective of adult attachment

This study aimed at examining how adult attachment styles as believes and expectations about self and others affected emotional recognition of facial expressions. In this study, hypotheses were framed based on the perspective of attachment dimensions. One hundred and sixty one undergraduates observed positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions as stimulus, and rated the extent to which each stimuli expressed several kinds of emotion. The main results were as follows. Generally, either anxious or avoidant individuals were less likely to perceive positive emotion (happy) from facial expressions, and anxious and less avoidant individuals perceived other-oriented negative emotions (anger, disgust, and contempt). In addition, avoidant individuals were less likely to perceive positive emotion from positive facial expressions. On the other hand, from negative facial expressions, anxious and less avoidant individuals were more likely to perceive other-oriented negative emotions, and anxious individuals were less likely to perceive positive emotion. The results were discussed from the perspective of adult attachment theory.     

Concordance of facial reactions to facial expressions

Participants watching a facial expression of emotion tend to respond with the same facial expression. This facial concordance is well known for happiness, but not for other emotions. The present study investigated whether facial expressions of basic six emotions induce facial concordance in participants by average-face method. Facial reactions of 20 subjects were videotaped while watching a facial expression of six emotions performed by amateur actors in a computer display. The six average faces were made from corresponding facial expression of emotions in the display. Newly chosen 62 subjects were asked to classify those average faces into six categories of emotion. The facial concordance was found for happiness and surprise, but not for disgust and fear. However, for average face of anger and that of sadness, classifications were divided into a few categories. This result suggests a possibility that an average faces might have included ambiguous or different faces. It may be necessary to conduct re-classification not with the average-face but with individual faces.     

Perception of schizophrenic patients in classifying pictures of facial expression

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of schizophrenics in classifying pictures of various facial expressions. Schizophrenics were divided into five groups according to the duration of their hospitalization. In the first experiment, subjects were instructed to look at the pictures of three different kinds of facial expressions, anger, delight (laughing) and sadness (crying), and classify them into any categories they like. In comparison with normals, schizophrenics had a difficulty in recognizing the differences in the various facial expressions. In the second experiment, subjects were instructed to look at the same pictures and classify them into three groups of different facial expressions. In this case, schizophrenics were able to classify them almost as well as normals.     

Reduced sensitivity in the recognition of anger and disgust in social anxiety disorder

Introduction. The aim of this study was to investigate the recognition of facial expressions in patients with a generalised social anxiety disorder. It is well documented that in different psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression, schizophrenia) patients may show an altered processing of emotions. However, in generalised social anxiety, emotion recognition has not been studied.

Methods. 24 Patients with generalised social anxiety disorder and 26 healthy controls, matched on age, education, and sex were included. The task entailed the emotional labelling of faces with different facial expressions (happiness, fear, disgust, sadness, surprise, anger) presented in different intensities. Subjects were asked to make a forced‐choice response.

Results. These revealed that patients with a generalised social anxiety disorder were less sensitive for the negative facial expressions of anger and disgust compared to the control group.

Conclusions. This deficit could play a role in the development and/or the maintaining of the social anxiety. Both explanations are discussed.     

Are facial expressions contagious in the Japanese?

Previous studies, mainly with Caucasian samples, have shown that facial expressions of emotion are contagious, a phenomenon known as facial mimicry. This study examined facial mimicry using a Japanese sample. Participants were shown a series of Japanese faces (from Matsumoto and Ekman, 1988) on a computer screen expressing "happiness", "sadness", "anger", or "disgust". While viewing the facial expressions, electoromyograms (EMG) of the participants' faces were recorded to see whether their own facial muscles corresponding to the stimulus faces were activated. Consistent with the previous studies using Caucasian samples, all four facial expressions were mimicked. The peak time of mimicry of angry or happy faces was later, while that of disgusted faces was relatively sooner. The potential relation of facial mimicry to "emotional contagion", a social phenomenon whereby subjective feelings transfer between people, is discussed.     

Emotion recognition: facial components associated with various emotions

This study examined the effect of the changes in facial expressions in different parts of the face on emotion recognition. Fifty-two university students participated in the study. Seven emotions were selected as being the most suitable for categorization and expression: namely, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, sadness, happiness, and neutrality. Picture of these emotions were used to create stimulus materials, composed facial expressions were created by combining the upper and the lower parts of the pictures expressing different emotions. The participants were asked to categorize the type of emotion represented by each picture. The results showed that the upper area of the face was more often associated with anger, fear, surprise, and sadness. On the contrary, the lower area was more often associated with disgust and happiness. There were no significant differences between parts of the face associated with neutral emotions. Based on these results, we conclude that affected areas of the face differed as a function of emotion being experienced. Finally, the relationship of our results with Yamada's model (1993) was discussed.     

Voluntary Facial Action Generates Emotion-Specific Autonomic Nervous System Activity

Four experiments were conducted to determine whether voluntarily produced emotional facial configurations are associated with differentiated patterns of autonomic activity, and if so, how this might be mediated. Subjects received muscle-by-muscle instructions and coaching to produce facial configurations for anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise while heart rate, skin conductance, finger temperature, and somatic activity were monitored. Results indicated that voluntary facial activity produced significant levels of subjective experience of the associated emotion, and that autonomic distinctions among emotions: (a) were found both between negative and positive emotions and among negative emotions, (b) were consistent between group and individual subjects' data, (c) were found in both male and female subjects, (d) were found in both specialized (actors, scientists) and nonspecialized populations, (e) were stronger when the voluntary facial configurations most closely resembled actual emotional expressions, and (f) were stronger when experience of the associated emotion was reported. The capacity of voluntary facial activity to generate emotion-specific autonomic activity: (a) did not require subjects to see facial expressions (either in a mirror or on an experimenter's face), and (b) could not be explained by differences in the difficulty of making the expressions or by differences in concomitant somatic activity.     

Three-mode factor analysis of emblematic gesture and body manipulation viewed from the dorsal perspective

This paper focuses on emblematic gesture and manipulation of body movements. Subjects viewed from the dorsal perspective the body movements displayed by two actors/actresses. These movements depicted the ten emotions of affection, joy, surprise, fear, sadness, disgust, anticipation, anger, contempt and acceptance. Three-mode factor analyses were applied to the data. Three factors were found in the emotion-mode, three in the scene-mode, and two factors in the subjects-mode. The emotion-mode and scene-mode factors were found to correspond to a high degree. Factor I was interpreted as an acceptance dimension, including affection, joy, anticipation and acceptance. The typical emblematic gestures were displayed with a standing posture and advanced movement. Factor II was interpreted as an avoidance dimension, including surprise, fear and sadness. The typical emblematic gestures were divided into two movements; regressive and "shrinking down". In addition, self-attached manipulations were typical expressions of sadness. Factor III was interpreted as a rejection dimension, including disgust, anger and contempt. Considerable body manipulation was used to express these emotional categories. Core-matrix and subjects' factor scores were correlated with a response tendency in terms of subjects' evaluations rather than their accuracy of judgment.     

Psychophysiological responses to anger provocation among Asian Indian and white men

To examine cultural differences in response to anger provocation, affective, cognitive, behavioral, and cardiovascular responses to social confrontation, role plays were measured in 20 Indian male immigrants in the United States and 40 White men. Participants engaged in 2 interactions with a nonacquiescent male confederate and were instructed to suppress or express their anger in counterbalanced order. Following each role play, participants state anger, and resentful and reflective cognitions pertaining to anger were assessed. Participants’ videotaped behavioral responses were assessed for problem-solving skills and negative and positive verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Blood pressure and heart rate (HR) responses were recorded throughout the session. Results revealed that Indian participants used more introspective strategies comprising of repression and rational coping self-statements to anger provocation than their White counterparts. White participants experienced significantly higher HR responses and showed more awareness of physiological sensation compared to the Indian participants, but only when asked to exhibit their anger. Indian participants had a faster diastolic blood pressure (DBP) recovery when allowed to engage in anger inhibition (which is a culturally determined mode of functioning) compared to when they had to exhibit anger before inhibiting it. White men showed a heightened cardiac response to anger expression, something not seen among Indian men. Indian men, in contrast, exhibited delayed DBP recovery from anger expression and increased introspective cognitive strategies when asked to engage in anger exhibition, a behavior not congruent with their culture of origin.     

Associations Between Anxious and Depressive Symptoms and the Recognition of Vocal Socioemotional Expressions in Youth

The current study examined the associations between internalizing symptoms and adolescents’ recognition of vocal socioemotional expressions produced by youth. Fifty-seven youth (8–17 years old, M = 12.62, SD = 2.66; 29 anxious, 28 nonanxious; 32 female, 25 male) were asked to identify the intended expression in auditory recordings of youth’s portrayals of basic emotions and social attitudes. Recognition accuracy increased with age, suggesting that the ability to recognize vocal affect continues to develop into adolescence. Anxiety symptoms were not associated with recognition ability, but youth’s depressive symptoms were related to poorer identification of anger and happiness. Youth experiencing symptoms of depression may be likely to misinterpret vocal expressions of happiness and anger.     

Facial electromyographic responses to vocal affect expressions

In this study we investigated facial electromyographic (EMG) responses to vocal affect expressions. We also measured emotion-related action tendencies by requesting the subjects to indicate their tendency to approach or withdraw from the person uttering the stimulus word. In addition, emotional contagion (EC) was measured with a questionnaire-based scale. The results showed that hearing the expression of anger increased EMG activity in the subjects' brow region more than hearing contentment. In contrast, the expression of contentment activated the periocular muscle region more than anger. The expressions of anger elicited behavioral withdrawal responses, whereas the neutral expressions and contentment evoked approach responses. Subjects scoring low and high on EC exhibited different patterns of EMG responses. The results support the view that negative and positive affects are contagious from hearing human vocal affect expressions.     

Emotional expression and feeling in schizophrenia: effects of specific expressive behaviors on emotional experiences

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional expression and experience in schizophrenia by manipulating expressive behaviors directly and then assessing subsequent emotional feelings. In Study 1, facial expressions and bodily postures were manipulated in a sample of normals, the results of which replicate findings from previous studies of peripheral feedback effects on emotions. In Study 2, the same procedures were used with matched groups of outpatient schizophrenic men, patients with depression, and nonpsychiatric controls. Schizophrenia patients showed the usual effects from their facial expressions of sadness, fear, happiness, and surprise, but only from their postures of anger, whereas patients with depression showed the same effects only from their expressions and postures of sadness, and normal controls only from their expressions and postures of anger. These patterns may reflect those aspects of the emotional response system that are functional and dysfunctional in schizophrenia and depression.     

Facial expressions as excitatory and inhibitory stimuli for conditioned autonomic responses

Several lines of evidence suggest that emotional responses to facial expressions of emotion have a biological basis. The present study involved 4 experiments where pictures of angry, happy or neutral facial expressions were used as conditioned stimuli in aversive Pavlovian electrodermal conditioning. From an evolutionary perspective it was expected that an angry face should have an excitatory effect on aversively conditioned responses, whereas a happy face should have an inhibitory effect. It was also expected that the effect should be specific for the stimulus person showing the display. The data showed that the stimulus person was a critical mediating factor for obtaining persistent conditioning effects, that is to say, responses which showed resistance to extinction. Persistent responding was primarily manifested when the stimulus person displayed anger during extinction. On the other hand, this effect was inhibited when the person displayed a happy face during extinction. Furthermore, resistance to extinction was increased or decreased dependent on whether the person expressed anger or happiness during acquisition. Thus, consistent with predictions, angry and happy faces exhibited an excitatory and inhibitory effect, respectively, and these effects were mediated by the stimulus person.     

Brain oscillations and BIS/BAS (behavioral inhibition/activation system) effects on processing masked emotional cues.: ERS/ERD and coherence measures of alpha band

Alpha brain oscillation modulation was analyzed in response to masked emotional facial expressions. In addition, behavioural activation (BAS) and behavioural inhibition systems (BIS) were considered as an explicative factor to verify the effect of motivational significance on cortical activity. Nineteen subjects were submitted to an ample range of facial expressions of emotions (anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, sadness, and neutral). The results demonstrated that anterior frontal sites were more active than central and posterior sites in response to facial stimuli. Moreover, right-side responses varied as a function of emotional types, with an increased right-frontal activity for negative emotions. Finally, whereas higher BIS subjects generated a more right hemisphere activation for some negative emotions (such as fear, anger, and surprise), Reward-BAS subjects were more responsive to positive emotion (happiness) within the left hemisphere. Valence and potential threatening power of facial expressions were considered to elucidate these cortical differences.     

Affective inhibitory control in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Abnormalities in electrocortical late positivity

Boys afflicted with ADHD (Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) are characterized by deficient response inhibition and reduced electrocortical late positivity when presented with facial expressions of anger. This deficit might contribute to their problems in social interactions. We conducted the present event-related potential study with 15 men suffering from ADHD and 15 healthy controls in order to investigate whether similar dysfunctions are present in adult ADHD. The participants underwent an emotional version of a Go/NoGo task while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. They were instructed to inhibit a motor response to one of four facial emotional expressions: anger, fear, sadness, or happiness. There were no behavioral differences in inhibitory control between the ADHD and the control group. However, the patients showed a reduced right parietal late positivity when instructed to inhibit a response to negative emotions. Obviously, the patients have learned to compensate for their deficit on a behavioral level, while it is still visible on the electrocortical level in this relatively simple task. Interestingly, the reduced positivity correlated with lowered self-reported emotional intelligence in the ADHD group.     

Facial mimicry and emotional contagion to dynamic emotional facial expressions and their influence on decoding accuracy.

The present study had the goal to assess whether individuals mimic and show emotional contagion in response to relatively weak and idiosyncratic dynamic facial expressions of emotions similar to those encountered in everyday life. Furthermore, the question of whether mimicry leads to emotional contagion and in turn facilitates emotion recognition was addressed. Forty-one female participants rated a series of short video clips of stimulus persons expressing anger, sadness, disgust, and happiness regarding the emotions expressed. An unobtrusive measure of emotional contagion was taken. Evidence for mimicry was found for all types of expressions. Furthermore, evidence for emotional contagion of happiness and sadness was found. Mediational analyses could not confirm any relation between mimicry and emotional contagion nor between mimicry and emotion recognition.     

Emotion recognition in schizophrenic and depressed inpatients

The performance of schizophrenic inpatients (N = 14), depressed inpatients (N = 15), and normal hospital employees (N = 15), all females, was compared on Izard's (1971) test of emotion recognition. Subjects were required to match photographs of facial expressions of emotion with the correct label for the emotion. The average numbers of errors of four types were examined: Positive or neutral emotions mislabelled as other positive or neutral emotions; positive or neutral emotions mislabelled as negative; negative emotions mislabelled as positive or neutral; and negative emotions mislabelled as other negative emotions. The principal findings were (1) the schizophrenics were less accurate than normals, but they were not less accurate than the depressives, nor were they less accurate on negative than positive or neutral emotions; (2) the depressives did not display any form of negative bias in emotion recognition; and (3) both groups of inpatients were less accurate than normals when they labelled an emotion as positive or neutral, but not when they labelled it as negative. Implications of the results for the etiology and maintenance of schizophrenia and depression were noted.     

Facial Emotion Recognition after Bilateral Amygdala Damage: Differentially Severe Impairment of Fear

Although the amygdala is widely believed to have a role in the recognition of emotion, a central issue concerns whether it is involved in the recognition of all emotions or whether it is more important to some emotions than to others. We describe studies of two people, DR and SE, with impaired recognition of facial expressions in the context of bilateral amygdala damage. When tested with photographs showing facial expressions of emotion from the Ekman and Friesen (1976) series, both DR and SE showed deficits in the recognition of fear. Problems in recognising fear were also found using photographic quality images interpolated (“morphed”) between prototypes of the six emotions in the Ekman and Friesen (1976) series to create a hexagonal continuum (running from happiness to surprise to fear to sadness to disgust to anger to happiness). Control subjects identified these morphed images as belonging to distinct regions of the continuum, corresponding to the nearest prototype expression. However, DR and SE were impaired on this task, with problems again being most clearly apparent in the region of the fear prototype. An equivalent test of recognition of morphed identities of six famous faces was performed normally by DR, confirming the dissociability of impairments affecting the recognition of identity and expression from the face. Further two-way forced-choice tests showed that DR was unable to tell fear from anger, but could tell happiness from sadness without difficulty. The finding that the recognition of fear can be differentially severely affected by brain injury is consistent with reports of the effects of bilateral amygdala damage in another case (Adolphs, Tranel, Damasio, & Damasio, 1994, 1995). The recognition of facial expressions of basic emotions may therefore be linked, to some extent, to specific neural substrates.