Positive mood attenuates the happiness superiority effect in visual search for schematic faces

Recently, Becker, Anderson, Mortensen, Neufeld, and Neel (2011), argued that the faster detection of angry than happy faces in crowds commonly observed in the literature is due to methodological confounds which conceal a true Happiness Superiority Effect (HSE). Following their recommendations to eliminate these confounds with schematic face stimuli, Experiment 1 yielded the predicted HSE extending prior findings with photographic stimuli. In Experiment 2, the mediating role of positive expectancy was tested. A happy or sad mood was induced to enhance or reduce the positive expectancy bias prior to the same two search tasks used in Experiment 1. A HSE was observed for participants in a sad but not in a happy mood. This suggests that, unlike the categorization advantage for happy faces, the HSE observed in visual search is unlikely to be due to a positive expectancy bias.