title: Can an anger face also be scared? Malleability of facial expressions.
abstract: Do people always interpret a facial expression as communicating a single emotion (e.g., the anger face as only angry) or is that interpretation malleable? The current study investigated preschoolers' (N = 60; 3-4 years) and adults' (N = 20) categorization of facial expressions. On each of five trials, participants selected from an array of 10 facial expressions (an open-mouthed, high arousal expression and a closed-mouthed, low arousal expression each for happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) all those that displayed the target emotion. Children's interpretation of facial expressions was malleable: 48% of children who selected the fear, anger, sadness, and disgust faces for the "correct" category also selected these same faces for another emotion category; 47% of adults did so for the sadness and disgust faces. The emotion children and adults attribute to facial expressions is influenced by the emotion category for which they are looking.
authors: Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. widensh@bc.edu
authors: Sherri C
authors: SC
authors: Widen
authors: Pamela
authors: P
authors: Naab
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000786:Anger; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual