title: Sex, sexual orientation, and identification of positive and negative facial affect.
abstract: Sex and sexual orientation related differences in processing of happy and sad facial emotions were examined using an experimental facial emotion recognition paradigm with a large sample (N = 240). Analysis of covariance (controlling for age and IQ) revealed that women (irrespective of sexual orientation) had faster reaction times than men for accurate identification of facial emotion and were more accurate in identifying male faces than female ones, whereas men performed the same regardless of the sex of the face. However, there were no overall sex differences in accuracy. These findings suggest a limited role for sex in the perception of facial affect.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of East London, The Green, London E15 4LZ, UK. q.rahman@uel.ac.uk
authors.forename: Qazi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.forename: Glenn D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abrahams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000523:psychology; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012737:Sex Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior