Abstract
The way facial expressions of emotion are recognized is influenced by other social information present in the face. For example, facial cues indicating a person’s race, age, and sex can influence the speed and accuracy with which an emotional expression is recognized. Current theories explaining why social category cues influence emotional expression recognition are focused on processes occurring on the observation of a single face. We demonstrate that these explanations are insufficient. Across a range of studies, participants labeled expressions on male and female or Black and White faces. Results demonstrate that other recently viewed faces, both within the task and in recently completed tasks, change how social cues influence emotion recognition. It is proposed that the characteristics of other recently observed faces elicit a social context that prioritizes the processing of particular aspects of the face and diminishes the importance of others.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 81 |
Publication status | Published - Apr 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 44th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists - Newcastle, Australia Duration: 9 Apr 2015 → 11 Apr 2015 Conference number: 44th |
Conference
Conference | 44th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists |
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Abbreviated title | SASP |
Country/Territory | Australia |
City | Newcastle |
Period | 9/04/15 → 11/04/15 |