Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?

Evidence that affective factors (e.g. anxiety, depression, affect) are significantly related to individual differences in emotion recognition is mixed. Palermo et al. (Palermo et al. 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44, 503–517) reported that individuals who scored lower in anxiety perfo...

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Main Authors: Sarah A. H. Alharbi, Katherine Button, Lingshan Zhang, Kieran J. O'Shea, Vanessa Fasolt, Anthony J. Lee, Lisa M. DeBruine, Benedict C. Jones
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2020-09-01
Series:Royal Society Open Science
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Online Access:https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.190699
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author Sarah A. H. Alharbi
Katherine Button
Lingshan Zhang
Kieran J. O'Shea
Vanessa Fasolt
Anthony J. Lee
Lisa M. DeBruine
Benedict C. Jones
author_facet Sarah A. H. Alharbi
Katherine Button
Lingshan Zhang
Kieran J. O'Shea
Vanessa Fasolt
Anthony J. Lee
Lisa M. DeBruine
Benedict C. Jones
author_sort Sarah A. H. Alharbi
collection DOAJ
description Evidence that affective factors (e.g. anxiety, depression, affect) are significantly related to individual differences in emotion recognition is mixed. Palermo et al. (Palermo et al. 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44, 503–517) reported that individuals who scored lower in anxiety performed significantly better on two measures of facial-expression recognition (emotion-matching and emotion-labelling tasks), but not a third measure (the multimodal emotion recognition test). By contrast, facial-expression recognition was not significantly correlated with measures of depression, positive or negative affect, empathy, or autistic-like traits. Because the range of affective factors considered in this study and its use of multiple expression-recognition tasks mean that it is a relatively comprehensive investigation of the role of affective factors in facial expression recognition, we carried out a direct replication. In common with Palermo et al. (Palermo et al. 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44, 503–517), scores on the DASS anxiety subscale negatively predicted performance on the emotion recognition tasks across multiple analyses, although these correlations were only consistently significant for performance on the emotion-labelling task. However, and by contrast with Palermo et al. (Palermo et al. 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44, 503–517), other affective factors (e.g. those related to empathy) often also significantly predicted emotion-recognition performance. Collectively, these results support the proposal that affective factors predict individual differences in emotion recognition, but that these correlations are not necessarily specific to measures of general anxiety, such as the DASS anxiety subscale.
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spelling doaj-art-5d885aad7e8e4f32af1e82af13b05fa02025-08-20T02:11:58ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032020-09-017910.1098/rsos.190699Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?Sarah A. H. Alharbi0Katherine Button1Lingshan Zhang2Kieran J. O'Shea3Vanessa Fasolt4Anthony J. Lee5Lisa M. DeBruine6Benedict C. Jones7Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UKDepartment of Psychology, University of Bath, England, UKInstitute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UKInstitute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UKInstitute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UKDivision of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland, UKInstitute of Neuroscience & Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UKDivision of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland, UKEvidence that affective factors (e.g. anxiety, depression, affect) are significantly related to individual differences in emotion recognition is mixed. Palermo et al. (Palermo et al. 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44, 503–517) reported that individuals who scored lower in anxiety performed significantly better on two measures of facial-expression recognition (emotion-matching and emotion-labelling tasks), but not a third measure (the multimodal emotion recognition test). By contrast, facial-expression recognition was not significantly correlated with measures of depression, positive or negative affect, empathy, or autistic-like traits. Because the range of affective factors considered in this study and its use of multiple expression-recognition tasks mean that it is a relatively comprehensive investigation of the role of affective factors in facial expression recognition, we carried out a direct replication. In common with Palermo et al. (Palermo et al. 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44, 503–517), scores on the DASS anxiety subscale negatively predicted performance on the emotion recognition tasks across multiple analyses, although these correlations were only consistently significant for performance on the emotion-labelling task. However, and by contrast with Palermo et al. (Palermo et al. 2018 J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 44, 503–517), other affective factors (e.g. those related to empathy) often also significantly predicted emotion-recognition performance. Collectively, these results support the proposal that affective factors predict individual differences in emotion recognition, but that these correlations are not necessarily specific to measures of general anxiety, such as the DASS anxiety subscale.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.190699emotional expressionface processingindividual differences
spellingShingle Sarah A. H. Alharbi
Katherine Button
Lingshan Zhang
Kieran J. O'Shea
Vanessa Fasolt
Anthony J. Lee
Lisa M. DeBruine
Benedict C. Jones
Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?
Royal Society Open Science
emotional expression
face processing
individual differences
title Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?
title_full Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?
title_fullStr Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?
title_full_unstemmed Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?
title_short Are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition?
title_sort are affective factors related to individual differences in facial expression recognition
topic emotional expression
face processing
individual differences
url https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.190699
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