Emotional expressions preferentially elicit implicit evaluations of faces also varying in race or age

Belinda M. Craig*, Ottmar V. Lipp, Kimberley M. Mallan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)
48 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Both facial cues of group membership (race, age, and sex) and emotional expressions can elicit implicit evaluations to guide subsequent social behavior. There is, however, little research addressing whether group membership cues or emotional expressions are more influential in the formation of implicit evaluations of faces when both cues are simultaneously present. The current study aimed to determine this. Emotional expressions but not race or age cues elicited implicit evaluations in a series of affective priming tasks with emotional Caucasian and African faces (Experiments 1 and 2) and young and old faces (Experiment 3). Spontaneous evaluations of group membership cues of race and age only occurred when those cues were task relevant, suggesting the preferential influence of emotional expressions in the formation of implicit evaluations of others when cues of race or age are not salient. Implications for implicit prejudice, face perception, and person construal are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)865-877
Number of pages13
JournalEmotion
Volume14
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2014
Externally publishedYes

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