Facial asymmetry detection in patients with body dysmorphic disorder

Cognitive-behavioral models of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) propose that individuals with BDD may possess a better or more developed sense of aestheticality than do individuals without BDD. Evidence for this proposition, however, is limited. One perceptual process that could contribute to heightened aestheticality is the ability to detect differences in symmetry. In this experiment we tested whether individuals with BDD (n = 20), relative to individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD; n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20), show an enhanced ability to detect differences in the symmetry of others’ faces, symmetry of dot arrays, and/or show a greater preference for symmetrical faces. Individuals with BDD were not significantly more accurate in detecting differences in facial symmetry or dot arrays relative to individuals with OCD and healthy controls. Individuals with OCD took longer to make facial symmetry judgments than did individuals in the other two groups. All participants, regardless of diagnostic group, preferred more symmetrical faces than nonsymmetrical ones. Taken together, our results do not support a heightened perceptual ability or evaluative preference for symmetry among individuals with BDD.     

The social face of emotion recognition: Evaluations versus stereotypes

The goal of the present paper was to demonstrate the influence of general evaluations and stereotype associations on emotion recognition. Earlier research has shown that evaluative connotations between social category members and emotional expression predict whether recognition of positive or negative emotional expressions will be facilitated (e.g. Hugenberg, 2005). In the current paper we tested the hypothesis that stereotype associations influence emotion recognition processes, especially when the difference between valences of emotional expressions does not come into play. In line with this notion, when participants in the present two studies were asked to classify positive versus negative emotional expressions (i.e. happy versus anger, or happy versus sadness), valence congruency effects were found. Importantly, however, in a comparative context without differences in valence in which participants were asked to classify two distinct negative emotions (i.e. anger versus sadness) we found that recognition facilitation occurred for stereotypically associated discrete emotional expressions. With this, the current results indicate that a distinction between general evaluative and cognitive routes can be made in emotion recognition processes.     

Implicit learning of social predictions

Humans exchange a range of nonverbal social signals in every interaction. It is an open question whether people use these signals, consciously or unconsciously, to guide social behavior. This experiment directly tested whether participants could learn to predict another person’s behavior using nonverbal cues in a single interaction, and whether explicit knowledge of the cue-outcome relationship was necessary for successful prediction. Participants played a computerized game of rock-paper-scissors against an avatar they believed was another participant. Sometimes the avatar generated a predictive facial cue before the play. On these trials, participants’ win-frequency increased over time, even if they did not acquire explicit knowledge of the predictive cue. The degree to which participants could predict the avatar (wins on cued trials) related to their self-reported liking of the avatar. These findings demonstrate the importance of implicit associative learning mechanisms in guiding social behavior on a moment-to-moment basis during interaction.     

Detection and recognition of emotional expressions: Effects of traits of personality disorder and gender

A problem in the processing of emotions has long been thought to be strongly associated with the aetiology and maintenance of personality disorders. Previous research has demonstrated a hyposensitivity to the faces expressing fear in those high on the traits of psychopathy, while patients with BPD have been shown to be hypersensitive to expressions in general. However, many previous studies could be explained by a bias in reporting particular expressions rather than a change in sensitivity to these expressions. Using two tasks, the present study examined both the detection and the recognition of four emotional expressions (anger, happy, sad, and fear) in a community sample of males and females. Measures of self-reported psychopathy and Borderline Personality traits were administered. The results showed marked gender differences. Psychopathy was negatively related to performance in both the detection and recognition of fear, but only for males. Borderline Personality traits were positively related to overall performance in the recognitions task, but only for females. The results suggest strong differences in the role that emotional processing might play between the genders.     

Digit ratios,but not facial width-to-height ratios,are associated with the priority placed on attending to faces versus bodies

Testosterone has been linked to a sexual preference for bodies rather than faces. Low digit ratio (2D:4D) and high facial width-to-height ratio (WHR) are associated with high prenatal testosterone. We tested whether low 2D:4D and high facial WHR were correlated with a preference for bodies over faces. Our sample consisted of 109 college students (64 males). A two-way analysis of variance demonstrated a significant main effect of digit ratio on the priority placed on paying attention to faces or bodies such that low 2D:4D was linked to a preference for bodies, but the effect of sex was not significant. There were no significant interaction effects. Another two-way analysis of variance revealed no significant effects for facial WHR and attentional priority but significant associations between sex and attentional priority. There were no significant interaction effects. Our findings indicate that individuals with low digit ratios tended to pay more attention to bodies than to faces compared with individuals with higher digit ratios, independently of sex. We also found that males tended to pay more attention to bodies than to faces compared with females, independently of facial WHR.     

Facial expressions can inhibit the activation of gender stereotypes

ABSTRACT

Using faces as the priming stimuli, the present study explored the influence of facial expressions on the activation of gender stereotypes using a lexical decision paradigm. Experiment 1 explored the activation of gender stereotypes when the facial primes contained only gender information. The results showed that gender stereotypes were activated. In Experiment 2, the facial primes contained both gender category and expression information. The results indicated that gender stereotypes were not activated. Experiment 3 required the participants to make emotion, gender, or impression decisions concerning the facial primes before the lexical decision task. The results showed that gender stereotypes were not activated in emotion and impression decisions conditions, whereas stereotypes were activated in gender decisions condition. These finding suggest that facial expressions can inhibit automatic activation of gender stereotypes, unless the perceivers perform gender categorization processing to prime faces intentionally.     

Reduced willingness to approach genuine smilers in social anxiety explained by potential for social evaluation,not misperception of smile authenticity

ABSTRACT

We investigate perception of, and responses to, facial expression authenticity for the first time in social anxiety, testing genuine and polite smiles. Experiment 1 (N?=?141) found perception of smile authenticity was unaffected, but that approach ratings, which are known to be reduced in social anxiety for happy faces, are more strongly reduced for genuine than polite smiles. Moreover, we found an independent contribution of social anxiety to approach ratings, over and above general negative affect (state/trait anxiety, depression), only for genuine smiles, and not for polite ones. We argue this pattern of results can be explained by genuine smilers signalling greater potential for interaction – and thus greater potential for the scrutiny that is feared in social anxiety – than polite smiles. Experiment 2 established that, relative to polite smilers, genuine smilers are indeed perceived as friendlier and likely to want to talk for longer if approached. Critically, the degree to which individual face items were perceived as wanting to interact correlated strongly with the amount that social anxiety reduced willingness to approach in Experiment 1. We conclude it is the potential for social evaluation and scrutiny signalled by happy expressions, rather than their positive valence, that is important in social anxiety.     

Emotion,core affect,and psychological construction

As an alternative to using the concepts of emotion, fear, anger, and the like as scientific tools, this article advocates an approach based on the concepts of core affect and psychological construction, expanding the domain of inquiry beyond “emotion”. Core affect is a neurophysiological state that underlies simply feeling good or bad, drowsy or energised. Psychological construction is not one process but an umbrella term for the various processes that produce: (a) a particular emotional episode's “components” (such as facial movement, vocal tone, peripheral nervous system change, appraisal, attribution, behaviour, subjective experience, and emotion regulation); (b) associations among the components; and (c) the categorisation of the pattern of components as a specific emotion.     

Children's and adults’ understanding of the “disgust face”

By the age of 4 years, children (N=120) know the meaning of the word disgust as well as they know the meaning of anger and fear; for example, when asked, they are equally able to generate a plausible cause for each of these emotions. Yet, in tasks involving facial expressions (free labelling of faces, deciding whether or not a face expresses disgust, or finding a “disgust face” in an array of faces), a majority of 3- to 7-year-old children (N=144) associated the prototypical “disgust face” with anger and denied its association with disgust (25% of adults on the same tasks did so as well). These results challenge the assumption that all humans easily recognise disgust from its facial expression and that this recognition is a precursor to children's understanding of the emotion of disgust.     

Embodiment effects in memory for facial identity and facial expression

Research suggests that states of the body, such as postures, facial expressions, and arm movements, play central roles in social information processing. This study investigated the effects of approach/avoidance movements on memory for facial information. Faces displaying a happy or a sad expression were presented and participants were induced to perform either an approach (arm flexion) or an avoidance (arm extension) movement. States of awareness associated with memory for facial identity and memory for facial expression were then assessed with the Remember/Know/Guess paradigm. The results showed that performing avoidance movements increased Know responses for the identity, and Know/Guess responses for the expression, of valence-compatible stimuli (i.e., sad faces as compared to happy faces), whereas this was not the case for approach movements. Based on these findings, it is suggested that approach/avoidance motor actions influence memory encoding by increasing the ease of processing for valence-compatible information.