Emotion recognition in medical students: effects of facial appearance and care schema activation

Abstract

Context Identifying the factors that may interfere with or sharpen the ability to recognise emotions when observing patients is a critical goal in medical education. This study addressed these issues by investigating the effects of facial appearance bias on medical students’ emotion recognition (Experiment 1) and whether such bias is modulated by the activation of relational caregiving schema (Experiment 2). Methods In Experiment 1, medical students were asked to recognise the emotions expressed by individuals differing in facial appearance (trustworthy, neutral and untrustworthy). In Experiment 2, they completed the same type of emotion recognition task after activating and anchoring themselves to the representation of the relational/human competences typical of a competent professional caregiver or after a control non‐representation condition. Results In both experiments, emotion recognition was affected by facial appearance bias: medical students were less accurate and slower in their recognition of emotions displayed by untrustworthy‐looking individuals than in their recognition of emotions exhibited by individuals evoking more positive inferences. In Experiment 2, the activation of care schema enhanced medical students’ emotion recognition ability regardless of facial appearance‐based inferences. Conclusions Medical students’ emotion recognition is affected by appearance‐based bias, but such bias may be weakened by techniques that harness medical students’ personal affective/relational and representational resources. Thus, the results provide a basis for designing curricula aimed at challenging implicit negative bias and promoting medical students’ emotion recognition ability starting in the early stages of their education.

Professional framing and emotional stability modulate facial appearance biases in nursing students

“…This result is in line with Mattarozzi et al (2017), who found that professional experience and seniority in nursing practice could mitigate biases against untrustworthy‐looking targets in the direction of a more sensitive and impartial caretaking approach. They are also consistent with Colonnello et al (2019), who found that medical students can modulate avoidance/approach responses to emotion expressions of untrustworthy people by means of an aware activation of their own relational resources in the healthcare professional context. Finally, results from correlations with personality traits allow us to identify individual characteristics of caretaking professionals that could facilitate or pose barriers to the provision of impartial care, consistent with the personality modulation of emotional reactions of nursing students we previously found in an earlier study (Fino, Di Campli, Patrignani, & Mazzetti, 2019).…”

“…However, Mattarozzi et al (2017) also reported an increased effort among professional nurses, identifying in senior professionals a care that balances first impression effects. Another study (Colonnello, Mattarozzi, & Russo, 2019 showed how medical students' capacities to accurately recognize emotions of patients was affected by their facial characteristics, Authors also reported that the facial appearance bias could be weakened by (caring) framing techniques that leverage on medical students' affective, relational and representational resources. Building on this research, we aimed to identify potential strategies and individual traits that can contribute to contrasting facial appearance biases among future nurses.…”

Behind the Mask: Emotion Recognition in Healthcare Students

“…In the healthcare settings, the ability to appropriately detect and interpret facial expressions and emotions is pivotal in shaping effective healthcare communication and functional healthcare professional-patient relations [7]. These abilities need to be assessed, monitored and nurtured in healthcare professionals and students who are setting up their skills in communication and in building effective relationships [7,8].…”

The Role of Regulatory Focus and Emotion Recognition Bias in Cross-Cultural Negotiation

“…Finally, Colonnello and colleagues [85] suggest the importance of care-for-others schema and related confidence and efficacy for accurate emotion recognition. Biases such as the first impressions based on people's facial appearance have been reported to influence the interpretation of basic emotions.…”

“…The result of an experimental study of medical students showed that subjects were less accurate and slower in their recognition of emotions for untrustworthy looking faces than for trustworthy ones. Yet, this bias was weakened when the emotional care frame that elicits a caring response to others was activated [85]. Additionally, accurate recognition of fear facial expression has been linked to prosocial tendencies through the activation of concern-for-others mechanisms [86].…”