TITLE:
How Emotional Context Influences Facial Preferences and Impressions
AUTHORS:
Satomi Hara, Kentaro Katahira, Kazuo Okanoya
KEYWORDS:
Facial Preference; Facial Impression; Emotional Pictures; Evaluative Conditioning
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.4 No.10,
October
12,
2013
ABSTRACT: Individuals
change their evaluations of human faces depending on the valence of the stimuli
presented with the faces. The present study investigated whether repeatedly
presenting picture stimuli in pairs would evoke various emotions that would
influence the subjects’ preferences for and impressions of facial stimuli. The
subjects’ preferences for the facial stimuli did not differ consistently
between before and after the facial stimuli were presented in tandem with
emotional pictures. The direction of the change differed depending on the sex
of the participant and the sex of face stimulus, even when the face was paired
with a picture of the same valence. The emotional pictures appeared to have an
effect on the emotions experienced in response to the face stimuli: the male
participants, who were likely to feel pleasant emotions toward the pleasant
pictures, were also likely to feel positive emotions toward the face stimuli
paired with those pictures. Moreover, the female participants, who were likely
to feel unpleasant emotions toward the unpleasant pictures, were also likely to
feel afraid of the male faces paired with those pictures. These results suggest
that the ability of an emotional stimulus to affect our preferences for and
impressions of a face stimulus, as well as the degree of this effect, are
highly sensitive to factors such as the sex of the participant and the sex of
facial stimulus.