Recognizing Emotions through Facial Expressions: A Largescale Experimental Study

Experimental research examining emotional processes is typically based on the observation of images with affective content, including facial expressions. Future studies will benefit from databases with emotion-inducing stimuli in which characteristics of the stimuli potentially influencing results c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-10, Vol.17 (20), p.7420
Main Authors: Dores, Artemisa R, Barbosa, Fernando, Queirós, Cristina, Carvalho, Irene P, Griffiths, Mark D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Agreements
Anger
Cameras
Cultural differences
Emotion recognition
Emotions
Experimental research
Facial Expression
Female
Gender
Gender differences
Happiness
Humans
Male
Older people
Pattern recognition
Perceptions
Recognition, Psychology
Sexes
White people
Women
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Summary:Experimental research examining emotional processes is typically based on the observation of images with affective content, including facial expressions. Future studies will benefit from databases with emotion-inducing stimuli in which characteristics of the stimuli potentially influencing results can be controlled. This study presents Portuguese normative data for the identification of seven facial expressions of emotions (plus a neutral face), on the Radboud Faces Database (RaFD). The effect of participants' gender and models' sex on emotion recognition was also examined. Participants ( = 1249) were exposed to 312 pictures of white adults displaying emotional and neutral faces with a frontal gaze. Recognition agreement between the displayed and participants' chosen expressions ranged from 69% (for anger) to 97% (for happiness). Recognition levels were significantly higher among women than among men only for anger and contempt. The emotion recognition was higher either in female models or in male models depending on the emotion. Overall, the results show high recognition levels of the facial expressions presented, indicating that the RaFD provides adequate stimuli for studies examining the recognition of facial expressions of emotion among college students. Participants' gender had a limited influence on emotion recognition, but the sex of the model requires additional consideration.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph17207420