Interpretation of Ambiguous Facial Expressions: The Effects of Rejection Sensitivity and Gender
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Date
2022-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Individual differences impact the ways people categorize ambiguous information, including their perceptions of others' emotional states. These perceptions can be powerful in determining whether to approach or avoid another person and in determining whether to pursue future interactions. A previous study found that higher social anxiety – a general fear of social encounters - is correlated with a more negative interpretation of ambiguous facial expressions. One question, then, is whether this effect might also be true of a more specific form of social anxiety – sensitivity to interpersonal rejection. The present research assesses whether individuals higher in rejection sensitivity also have a more negative interpretation of ambiguous facial expressions. To assess this, participants saw videos of a smiling face morphing into an angry face over a 20-second interval and were asked to indicate when the facial expression became negative. Results show that individuals higher in rejection sensitivity were significantly faster to identify the face as negative, as hypothesized. Gender differences were also evaluated, given the widespread literature on gender and emotion recognition. In this study, men were significantly faster than women in identifying the face as negative. This research extends previous work on individual differences in the interpretation of facial expressions, as well as provides support for the theory that men may be more sensitive than women to recognizing anger.
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Keywords
rejection sensitivity, facial expression, valence weighting, gender, emotion