Differences in facial affect recognition between non-offending and offending drivers

• Published in: Transportation research. Part F, Traffic psychology and behaviour Traffic psychology and behaviour, 2019-01, Vol.60, p.582-589
• Main Authors: Trepáčová, Martina, Řezáč, Pavel, Kurečková, Veronika, Zámečník, Petr, Řezáč, Jan, Kopečková, Lenka
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antisocial personality disorder; Automobile drivers; Emotion recognition; Emotional expression; Emotions; Face recognition; Facial affect recognition; Non-offenders; Offenders; Pictures; POFA test; Response time; Traffic accidents & safety; Transportation research
• ISSN: 1369-8478; 1873-5517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2018.11.009

•Non-offenders are faster in recognizing emotions than offenders.•Offenders have specific deficits in response time for emotion recognition.•The present study found no evidence of any differences in the quality of facial affect recognition, only a difference in the speed of that recognition. It is assumed that emotion recognition is a complex process related to prosocial and antisocial behaviour (Marsh & Blair, 2008). The present study focuses on the connection between recognizing emotions and safe/unsafe driving. We studied whether there are differences in response time in facial emotion recognition. Fifty-one non-offenders and 41 offenders completed a Pictures of Facial Affect test (Ekman & Friesen, 1976) wherein photographs of prototypical facial emotional expressions were presented. Results show differences between the groups in response time to all emotions whether answers were correct or incorrect. Data show that non-offenders are faster in recognizing emotions than are offenders. These findings demonstrate that offenders exhibit specific deficits in response time for facial affect expressions.