Naslov
Gender and age related differences in recognition of facial expressions of emotions

Autori
Barbir, Lovorka ; Gregorić, Boris ; Harhaj, Ana ; Ilakovac, Vesna ; Heffer-Lauc, Marija

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Abstract Book of the Third Croatian Congress of Neuroscience / - , 2009

Skup
The Third Croatian Congress of Neuroscience

Mjesto i datum
Zadar, Hrvatska, 24.09.2009. - 26.09.2009

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Ostalo

Vrsta recenzije
Domaća recenzija

Ključne riječi
emotions; facial expression recognition; gender specific

Sažetak
The seven basic emotions: anger, sadness, fear, surprise, joy, contempt and disgust are cross-culturally readily recognized. Other complex emotions are composed out of basic seven. Although voluntary muscles allow certain degree of deception, autonomous component of facial expression provides insight in real intentions. We assumed that recognition of facial expressions of emotions is the innate ability of individual brain with gender specific pattern. Survey constructed out of 13 photos with basic and complex emotions expressed by professional male and female actors was given to 217 participants (147 female/ 70 male) of different age. We tested the recognition of facial expressions of following emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, contempt, disgust, surprise, jealousy, despair, confusion, shame, worry, anxiety and anger. Our results show that female participants were better in recognizing emotions on female and male faces. All participants were better in recognizing facial expressions in female faces than in male faces. All participants showed remarkable precision in detecting joy (100% on male face/97, 7% on female face) and surprise (77, 4% on male face/87, 1% on female face). They also had a low ability of recognizing sadness (22, 6%) and despair (22, 6%) on male faces and recognizing worry (22, 6%) and anger (28, 1%) on female faces. Particularly, male participants had low ability in recognizing sadness on male (5, 5%) and female faces (6, 9%), despair on male (5, 5%) and worry on female faces (7, 8%). Female participants had low ability in recognizing anger on female faces (18, 4%), but moderate ability in recognizing anger on male face (49, 3%). On the other hand, female participants were better in detecting contempt and shame on female faces (32, 3%, 44, 7%, respectively), comparing to contempt and shame in male faces (19, 4%, 17, 5%, respectively). Male participants were also better in detecting shame on female faces (21, 2%), than in male faces (6, 5%). Gender specific pattern in recognizing emotions could explain some misconceptions and traditional roles humans played during cultural evolution.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Biologija, Temeljne medicinske znanosti

POVEZANOST RADA