The Vividness of Happiness in Dynamic Facial Displays of Emotion

Becker, David V.; Neel, Rebecca; Srinivasan, Narayanan; Neufeld, Samantha L.; Kumar, Dhananjay; Fouse, Shannon

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026551

Cited by 51 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…the timing of the change, without sacrificing the realism of the expressive dynamics (e.g., Becker et al, 2012). The duration of the temporal unfolding of facial expressions of emotion (533 ms) was in line with other experiments generating dynamic facial expressions with methods similar to the present study (e.g., Arsalidou et al, 2011: 300 ms;Becker et al, 2012: 105 ms;Horstmann & Ansorge, 2009: 500 ms; Schultz & Pilz, 2009: 1040.…”

Section: Anger Superiority Effectsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Static facial stimuli do not reflect the information available from seeing a face in the real world and, thus, may elicit a form of processing that does not reflect the cognitive mechanisms naturally involved in emotion recognition (Foley, Rippon, Thai, Longe, & Senior, 2012). Becker, Neel, Srinivasan, Neufeld, and Kumar (2012) asked participants to identify the dynamic expression (happy or angry) of one or four faces. The stimuli were singleton faces or crowds of faces all showing the same emotional expression.…”

Section: Empirical Research On the Threat Advantage Effect Static Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of happy expressions, for example, the facial features in the mouth region were found to be particularly visually salient. Calvo and Nummenmaa concluded that there is no evidence that angry faces are more efficiently detected in a crowd than happy faces, if low-level visual confounds are controlled (see also Becker, Anderson, et al, 2011;Becker, Horstmann, & Remington, 2011;Becker et al, 2012;Coelho, Cloete, & Wallis, 2010;Horstmann, 2009;Hunt, Cooper, Hungr, & Kingstone, 2007;Mak-Fan, Thompson, & Green, 2011;Mermillod, Vermeulen, Lundqvist, & Niedenthal, 2009;Purcell & Stewart, 2010).…”

Section: Low-level Visual Confoundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anger superiority effect: The importance of dynamic emotional facial expressions

Ceccarini

Caudek

2013

Visual Cognition

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A rapid response to a threatening face in a crowd is important to successfully interact in social environments. Visual search tasks have been employed to determine whether there is a processing advantage for detecting an angry face in a crowd, compared to a happy face. The empirical findings supporting the ''anger superiority effect'' (ASE), however, have been criticized on the basis of possible lowlevel visual confounds and because of the limited ecological validity of the stimuli. Moreover, a ''happiness superiority effect'' is usually found with more realistic stimuli. In the present study, we tested the ASE by using dynamic (and static) images of realistic human faces, with validated emotional expressions having similar intensities, after controlling the bottom-up visual saliency and the amount of image motion. In five experiments, we found strong evidence for an ASE when using dynamic displays of facial expressions, but not when the emotions were expressed by static face images.Keywords: Anger superiority effect; Dynamic faces; Face-in-the-crowd effect; Face perception; Emotion.Evolutionary arguments may lead us to expect that threatening faces are detected more efficiently among a crowd of distractor faces than nonthreatening faces. Because facial threat provides a particularly potent social Please address all correspondence to Corrado Caudek, Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology, and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, Via di San Salvi 12, Complesso di San Salvi, Padiglione 26, 50135 Firenze, Italy. E-mail: corrado.caudek@unifi.it These findings suggest that the ASE might be mediated by mechanisms that are summoned only in part (or not at all) by stimuli lacking the typical dynamic characteristics of facial emotion in natural settings.

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Section: Anger Superiority Effectsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Empirical Research On the Threat Advantage Effect Static Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Low-level Visual Confoundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Anger superiority effect: The importance of dynamic emotional facial expressions

Ceccarini

Caudek

2013

Visual Cognition

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“…In contrast, fear and anger obtained the lowest number of correct responses and the longest reaction times. Our findings thus coincide with those from previous studies that observed greater accuracy in detecting happiness than expressions of fear (Juth, Lundqvist, Karlsson, & Ohman, 2005;Kirouac & Dore, 1983), anger (Becker, Anderson, Mortensen, Neufeld, & Neel, 2011;Becker et al, 2012;Juth et al, 2005), and sadness (Srivastava & Srinivasan, 2010). These findings have led researchers to postulate that happy facial expressions are more visually-discriminable, probably because their communicative intent is less ambiguous than that of other expressions (Becker et al, 2011).…”

Section: Emotional Recognitionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Emotional Experience and Recognition across Menstrual Cycle and in Premenstrual Disorder

Ramos-Loyo¹,

Sanz-Martín²

2017

IJPS

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The aim of this study was to determine if differences exist in mood and in the recognition of female and male emotional faces among women in different phases of the menstrual cycle, and in women who suffer from Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) in the premenstrual phase. Both the emotional states and the recognition of female and male emotional faces were assessed in women in each phase of the menstrual cycle: post-menstrual, ovulatory, post-ovulatory and premenstrual. Also evaluated was a group of women who presented symptoms of PMDD during the premenstrual phase. Only the women with PMDD showed significant changes in levels of unpleasant emotions and anxiety. Regardless of group, the highest accuracy was observed for recognition of happiness and disgust, followed by surprise and sadness. The lowest level of recognition was seen for fear and anger. In addition, expressions of happiness and surprise were recognized better on female faces, while fearful and angry expressions were recognized better on male faces. Finally, women in the ovulatory phase and those with PMDD showed higher accuracy when recognizing sadness on male faces. These results suggest that only women with PMDD presented important differences in their emotional experience compared to the other groups. Finally, the gender of the emotion emitter was a factor that affected the recognition of emotions, an effect that was seen to interact slightly with the menstrual cycle phase.

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“…In other studies happy faces were found most efficiently; a finding known as the happiness superiority effect (Juth, Lundqvist, Karlsson, & Öhman, 2005; D. V. Becker, Anderson, Mortensen, Neufeld, & Neel, 2011). This happiness superiority effect has also been shown in detection tasks that employed dynamic expressions of emotion instead of the still images used in visual search (D. V. Becker et al, 2012). Finally, some studies proffer that there is no evidence for the preferential detection of either expression and claim that previous reports reflect on low-level perceptual confounds rather than the emotion expressed (Purcell, Stewart & Skov, 1996;Purcell & Stewart, 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 70%

In search of the emotional face: Anger versus happiness superiority in visual search.

Savage¹,

Lipp²,

Craig³

et al. 2013

Emotion

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Previous research has provided inconsistent results regarding visual search for emotional faces, yielding evidence for either anger superiority (i.e., more efficient search for angry faces) or happiness superiority effects (i.e., more efficient search for happy faces), suggesting that these results do not reflect on emotional expression, but on emotion (un-)related low-level perceptual features. The present study investigated possible factors mediating anger/happiness superiority effects, specifically search strategy (fixed vs. variable target search; Experiment 1), stimulus choice (Nimstim database vs. Ekman & Friesen database; Experiments 1 & 2), and emotional intensity (Experiment 3 & 3a). Angry faces were found faster than happy faces regardless of search strategy using faces from the Nimstim database (Experiment 1). By contrast, a happiness superiority effect was evident in Experiment 2 when using faces from the Ekman and Friesen database. Experiment 3 employed angry, happy, and exuberant expressions (Nimstim database) and yielded anger and happiness superiority effects respectively, highlighting the importance of the choice of stimulus materials. Ratings of the stimulus materials collected in Experiment 3a indicate that differences in perceived emotional intensity, pleasantness or arousal do not account for differences in search efficiency. Across three studies, the current investigation indicates that prior reports of anger or happiness superiority effects in visual search are likely to reflect on low-level visual features associated with the stimulus materials used, rather than on emotion.

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The Vividness of Happiness in Dynamic Facial Displays of Emotion

Cited by 51 publications

References 27 publications

Anger superiority effect: The importance of dynamic emotional facial expressions

Anger superiority effect: The importance of dynamic emotional facial expressions

Emotional Experience and Recognition across Menstrual Cycle and in Premenstrual Disorder

In search of the emotional face: Anger versus happiness superiority in visual search.

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