The adaptive value associated with expressing and perceiving angry-male and happy-female faces

Tay, Peter Kay Chai

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00851

Cited by 25 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…The gender results presented in this experiment go hand in hand with previous results of higher accuracy for happy than for angry female faces and for angry than for happy male faces, but only in the context of a gender categorization task (see Becker et al 2011;Hess et al, 2009;Pérez-Moreno et al, 2016). This result can be explained by the fact that angry females might be misidentified as males and happy males as females as has been reported previously in our laboratory (see Aguado, García-Gutiérrez, & Serrano-Pedraza, 2009;Grossman & Wood, 1993;Plant, Hyde, Keltner, & Devine, 2000;Tay, 2015).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Furthermore, the brief exposure times would have impeded more detailed visual inspection and analysis of other genderrelevant features that might counteract the influence of the salient expression features. According to this account, gender misidentifications should have been more likely in the cases of angry female and happy male faces (Aguado et al, 2009;Grossman & Wood, 1993;Tay, 2015). In fact, the accuracy of gender discrimination in Experiment 2 for the different combinations of gender and expression confirms this prediction is a better discrimination of gender for happy male than for angry female faces.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…What we propose is that this functional characteristic increases the power of angry and happy expressions to command attention at the expense of other facial features such as those relevant for gender discrimination. This hypothesis suggests a fast and accurate detection of angry and happy faces (Eastwood, Smilek, & Merikle., 2001;Reynolds, Eastwood, Partanen, Frischen, & Smilek, 2009;Tay, 2015). The ability of angry and happy faces to command attention would be reinforced when the task assigned to the participant is precisely to differentiate between them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Discrimination of face gender and expression under dual-task conditions

Garcı́a-Gutiérrez

Aguado

Romero‐Ferreiro

et al. 2016

Atten Percept Psychophys

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In order to test whether expression and gender can be attended to simultaneously without a cost in accuracy four experiments were carried out using a dual gender-expression task with male and female faces showing different emotional expressions that were backward masked by emotionally neutral faces. In the dual-facial condition the participants had to report both the gender and the expression of the targets. In two control conditions the participant reported either the gender or the expression of the face and indicated whether a surrounding frame was continuous or discontinuous. In Experiments 1-3, with angry and happy targets, asymmetric interference was observed. Gender discrimination, but no expression discrimination, was impaired in the dual-facial condition compared to the corresponding control. This effect was obtained with a between-subjects design in Experiment 1, with a within-subjects design in Experiment 2, and with androgynous face masks in Experiment 3. In Experiments 4a and 4b different target combinations were tested. No decrement of performance in the dual-facial task was observed for either gender or expression discrimination with fearful-disgusted (Experiment 4a) or fearful-happy faces (Experiment 4b). We conclude that the ability to attend simultaneously to gender and expression cues without a decrement in performance depends on the specific combination of expressions to be differentiated between. Happy and angry expressions are usually directed at the perceiver and command preferential attention. Under conditions of restricted viewing such as those of the present study, discrimination of these expressions is prioritized leading to impaired discrimination of other facial properties such as gender.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Discrimination of face gender and expression under dual-task conditions

Garcı́a-Gutiérrez

Aguado

Romero‐Ferreiro

et al. 2016

Atten Percept Psychophys

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“…In addition, the finding that young adults more quickly detected male fearful faces is worth noting in and of itself. The tendency towards faster detection of male expressive faces over female faces among adults has been shown in previous studies (Tay, ; Williams & Mattingley, ). This bias in attention allocation could be explained by a different cognitive mechanism whereby male faces are perceived as more threatening than female ones (Harris, Hayes‐Skelton, & Ciaramitaro, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Developmental effects of stimulus gender and the social context in which it appears on threat detection

Horovitz

Lindenfeld

Melamed

et al. 2017

British J of Dev Psycho

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This study used a hands-free eye-tracking visual search (VS) task to examine possible developmental differences in target detection. Thirty-two young adults and 27 youth were asked to detect a fearful face (male or female) among a crowd of either neutral or happy faces. Fearful male faces were detected faster than fearful female faces, but only by young adults and only when displayed among neutral faces. Additionally, young adults had shorter scanpath lengths prior to the target detection. Finally, a strong negative correlation emerged between age and detection speed for a male target in a neutral crowd. Using this age-matched VS task, the study found age differences in the way individuals detect a threat in a social-related contextual environment, pointing to subtle differences in the emotion-attention interplay during the course of development. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Visual search of threat detection is critical for survival, specifically regarding expressive faces. Visual search efficiency is affected by both stimulus-driven and higher goal-directed processes. Stimuli and contextual features affect threat speed detection. What does this study add? A novel task was designed to examine age-related differences in visual search. Specific stimuli gender and contextual features yielded age-related differences in threat detection. The study further demonstrates the subtle developmental differences in attention-emotion interaction.

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“…35 The findings of this study suggest a different effect of dental appearance on self-reported discrimination according to sex. Studies have reported that females smile more than males in social situations 36 and when social tension is high. [37][38][39] The fact is that, in social interactions, one's attention is mainly directed towards the mouth and eyes of the speaker's face.…”

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confidence: 99%