Differential attentional guidance by unattended faces expressing positive and negative emotion

Abstract

Four experiments were conducted to evaluate whether focal attention can be guided by an analysis of the emotional expression in a face. Participants searched displays of 7, 11, 15, and 19 schematic faces for the location of a unique face expressing either a positive or a negative emotion located among distractor faces expressing a neutral emotion. The slopes of the search functions for locating the negative face were shallower than the slopes of the search functions for locating the positive face (Experiments 1A and 2A). When the faces were inverted to reduce holistic face perception, the slopes of the search functions for locating positive and negative faces were not different (Experiments 1B and 2B). The results suggest that the emotional expression in a face can be perceived outside the focus of attention and can guide focal attention to the location of the face.

Negative emotional photographs are identified more slowly than positive photographs

“…For instance, in the previous experiments, participants may have covertly shifted attention away from the negative image (e.g., to the side of the computer monitor), thereby interrupting the initial encoding of the negative images. Although this explanation may be at odds with claims that attention rapidly and reflexively shifts toward potentially negative images (Bradley et al, 1997;Eastwood, Smilek, & Merikle, 2001;Koster, Crombez, Van Damme, Verschuere, & De Houwer, 2004;Öhman et al, 2001), there is some evidence that an attentional bias toward negative images is robust only when one tests populations that have been selected for high anxiety; among nonselect and populations selected for low-anxiety, there is some evidence for a bias away from negative information (Bar-Haim, Lamy, Lee, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van Ijzendoorn, 2007;Becker & Detweiler-Bedell, 2009;Frewen et al, 2008). Thus, it is possible that a reflexive attentional shift away from the negative images impeded their identification and storage.…”

Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development.

“…Specifically, if young infants typically had positive everyday interactions, then their evaluative neutral point, rather than being equidistant from positive and negative evaluations, would shift closer to positive evaluations; this would 7 Some researchers (e.g., Bohner, Bless, Schwarz, & Strack, 1988;Kellermann, 1984) have attempted to rule this out by manipulating the probability and the negativity of events independently and revealing a negativity bias even when the negative and positive events occurred equally frequently (see also Eastwood, Smilek, & Merikle, 2001;Fox et al, 2000;Hansen & Hansen, 1988;Öhman, Lundqvist, & Esteves, 2001;Pratto & John, 1991). Note, however, that if in our daily lives, we do generally experience more positive than negative outcomes, and negative outcomes do therefore stand out, then when faced with an artificial research situation in which there is an equal or higher probability of negative outcomes, we might nevertheless display a negativity bias (Baumeister et al, 2001;Taylor, 1991).…”

Tagging multiple emotional stimuli: Negative valence has little benefit.

“…With relevance to the present work, the growing evidence showing that humans are more efficient at detecting negative stimuli than positive stimuli (Blanchette, 2006) or faces that show a negative emotional expression compared with a positive expression (Eastwood, Smilek & Merikle, 2001;Fox et al, 2000) points towards biological preparedness (Seligman, 1971) or dedicated fear processing mechanisms (LeDoux, 1996(LeDoux, , 1998Öhman & Mineka, 2001). For example, Eastwood and colleagues (2001) demonstrated in a visual search experiment that a negative target face presented amongst neutral faces could be detected more efficiently (i.e.…”

“…the top-down intentional component). With respect to the present work, a substantial body of research has shown than negative stimuli appear to be able to take priority over more neutral stimuli (Blanchette, 2006;Eastwood, Smilek & Merikle, 2001;Lipp, Derakshan, Waters & Logies, 2004). Effectively, the properties of the negative stimulus appear to act as a salient feature allowing it to attract or guide attention.…”