The eyes are sufficient to produce a threat superiority effect.
The research described in this article used a visual search task and demonstrated that the eye region alone can produce a threat superiority effect. Indeed, the magnitude of the threat superiority effect did not increase with whole-face, relative to eye-region-only, stimuli. The authors conclude that the configuration of the eyes provides a key signal of threat, which can mediate the search advantage for threat-related facial expressions.
Fox
Elaine
E
Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Essex, United Kingdom. efox@essex.ac.uk
Damjanovic
Ljubica
L
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D001143:Arousal; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004644:Emotions; D005123:Eye; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time