Emotional Expressions of Old Faces Are Perceived as More Positive and Less Negative than Young Faces in Young Adults
Interpreting the emotions of others through their facial expressions can provide important social information, yet the way in which we judge an emotion is subject to psychosocial factors. We hypothesized that the age of a face would bias how the emotional expressions are judged, with older faces gen...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2015-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01276/full |
| _version_ | 1818505269048508416 |
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| author | Norah C Hass Erik J Schneider Seung-Lark eLim |
| author_facet | Norah C Hass Erik J Schneider Seung-Lark eLim |
| author_sort | Norah C Hass |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Interpreting the emotions of others through their facial expressions can provide important social information, yet the way in which we judge an emotion is subject to psychosocial factors. We hypothesized that the age of a face would bias how the emotional expressions are judged, with older faces generally more likely to be viewed as having more positive and less negative expressions than younger faces. Using two-alternative forced-choice perceptual decision tasks, participants sorted young and old faces of which emotional expressions were gradually morphed into one of two categories - neutral vs. happy and neutral vs. angry. The results indicated that old faces were more frequently perceived as having a happy expression at the lower emotional intensity levels, and less frequently perceived as having an angry expression at the higher emotional intensity levels than younger faces in young adults. Critically, the perceptual decision threshold at which old faces were judged as happy was lower than for young faces, and higher for angry old faces compared to young faces. These findings suggest that the age of the face influences how its emotional expression is interpreted in social interactions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T21:48:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-57cde836b6904c69a5ce9ab6975fd2eb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T21:48:23Z |
| publishDate | 2015-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-57cde836b6904c69a5ce9ab6975fd2eb2022-12-22T01:32:18ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782015-08-01610.3389/fpsyg.2015.01276155242Emotional Expressions of Old Faces Are Perceived as More Positive and Less Negative than Young Faces in Young AdultsNorah C Hass0Erik J Schneider1Seung-Lark eLim2University of Missouri - Kansas CityUniversity of Missouri - Kansas CityUniversity of Missouri - Kansas CityInterpreting the emotions of others through their facial expressions can provide important social information, yet the way in which we judge an emotion is subject to psychosocial factors. We hypothesized that the age of a face would bias how the emotional expressions are judged, with older faces generally more likely to be viewed as having more positive and less negative expressions than younger faces. Using two-alternative forced-choice perceptual decision tasks, participants sorted young and old faces of which emotional expressions were gradually morphed into one of two categories - neutral vs. happy and neutral vs. angry. The results indicated that old faces were more frequently perceived as having a happy expression at the lower emotional intensity levels, and less frequently perceived as having an angry expression at the higher emotional intensity levels than younger faces in young adults. Critically, the perceptual decision threshold at which old faces were judged as happy was lower than for young faces, and higher for angry old faces compared to young faces. These findings suggest that the age of the face influences how its emotional expression is interpreted in social interactions.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01276/fullEmotionsagefacial expressionsFacial Perceptionperceptual decision |
| spellingShingle | Norah C Hass Erik J Schneider Seung-Lark eLim Emotional Expressions of Old Faces Are Perceived as More Positive and Less Negative than Young Faces in Young Adults Frontiers in Psychology Emotions age facial expressions Facial Perception perceptual decision |
| title | Emotional Expressions of Old Faces Are Perceived as More Positive and Less Negative than Young Faces in Young Adults |
| title_full | Emotional Expressions of Old Faces Are Perceived as More Positive and Less Negative than Young Faces in Young Adults |
| title_fullStr | Emotional Expressions of Old Faces Are Perceived as More Positive and Less Negative than Young Faces in Young Adults |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emotional Expressions of Old Faces Are Perceived as More Positive and Less Negative than Young Faces in Young Adults |
| title_short | Emotional Expressions of Old Faces Are Perceived as More Positive and Less Negative than Young Faces in Young Adults |
| title_sort | emotional expressions of old faces are perceived as more positive and less negative than young faces in young adults |
| topic | Emotions age facial expressions Facial Perception perceptual decision |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01276/full |
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