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Recognizing Emotions through Facial Expressions: A Largescale Experimental Study

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  • Artemisa R. Dores

    (Center for Rehabilitation Research, School of Health, Polytechnic of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
    Laboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal)

  • Fernando Barbosa

    (Laboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal)

  • Cristina Queirós

    (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal)

  • Irene P. Carvalho

    (Clinical Neurosciences and Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Porto, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal)

  • Mark D. Griffiths

    (International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

Abstract

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 ( N = 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Artemisa R. Dores & Fernando Barbosa & Cristina Queirós & Irene P. Carvalho & Mark D. Griffiths, 2020. "Recognizing Emotions through Facial Expressions: A Largescale Experimental Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:20:p:7420-:d:426620
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Maruti Vijayshankar Mishra & Sonia Baloni Ray & Narayanan Srinivasan, 2018. "Cross-cultural emotion recognition and evaluation of Radboud faces database with an Indian sample," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Douglas Medin & Bethany Ojalehto & Ananda Marin & Megan Bang, 2017. "Systems of (non-)diversity," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(5), pages 1-5, May.
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