Emotion Perception
Previous research suggests people tend to automatically associate Black individuals with anger, as demonstrated with quicker expression categorization when the face is angry and Black vs. angry and White. Some research similarly finds people automatically associate White individuals with happiness. In contrast, there is evidence that people have a racial ingroup advantage when identifying expressions, meaning people are more accurate at identifying all expressions when the face is of their racial ingroup. Across multiple studies, we aim to bring clarity to the race and emotion perception work, in addition to determining whether facial features, skin tone, or both impact emotional perception.
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However, for these set of stimuli, participants were asked to quickly categorize the expression as angry or happy using the keys on their keyboard. This study helps answer whether skin tone impacts how people perceive angry and happy expressions.​
Here, we found when features are controlled (i.e., ambiguous features), people were faster at categorizing angry Black vs. White faces and happy White vs. Black faces. These results suggest there is an ingroup feature advantage for angry expressions. However, for happy ​
Unambiguous features
Unambiguous features
Ambiguous features
Ambiguous features
In the second study, we morphed Black and White faces to create a spectrum of faces ranging from 100% Black to 100% White in 25% increments. As in the previous study, faces had either angry or happy expressions and participants were shown one stimulus at a time and asked to categorize the expression as angry or happy. ​
We created three different sets of facial stimuli. In the first study, we controlled facial features by creating 50% Black and 50% White features but not changing the skin tone of the face. Faces had either angry or happy expressions.
expressions, participants were faster as categorizing White vs. Black expressions, suggesting there is an ingroup skin tone advantage for happy expressions.
100% Black
100% White
75% Black
50% Black
50% White
75% White
Using, mouse tracking, we were able to determine people's expression indecisiveness and whether indecisiveness depended on the racial makeup of the face. Specifically, we found that consistent with the previous study, there was an ingroup advantage for both expressions (i.e., as the face became more White, participants were faster at categorizing expressions) in most cases. However, reaction times were not different between the angry 100% Black and 100% White faces. This may be because both the ingroup advantage and the Black-angry association are competing against each other, creating a null difference. Thus, it seems both the race of the face and automatic associations linked to each face play a role in expression categorization.
In the third study, we controlled skin tone by making all stimuli have blue skin tone but not changing the facial features. As in the previous studies, faces had either angry or happy expressions and participants were asked to quickly categorize the expression as angry or happy using the keys on their keyboard. This study helps answer whether facial features impact how people perceive angry and happy expressions. The results indicated that participants were faster to categorize angry White vs. Black features, suggesting an ingroup feature advantage for angry faces, replicating Study 1. There were no reaction time differences for happy White vs. Black features, suggesting there is no ingroup feature advantage for happy expressions, once again replicating Study 1's findings.
White Features
Black Features
In total, it seems both the ingroup advantage and automatic associations play a role in expression categorization. When controlling for either skin tone or features, we see an ingroup feature advantage for angry expressions but an ingroup skin tone advantage for happy expressions. However, when we manipulate skin tone and features congruently (e.g., features are 50% Black and skin tone is 50% Black), we see both the race-based associations (i.e., Black-angry, White-happy) and the ingroup advantage competing against each other.