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Tuning to the Positive: Age-Related Differences in Subjective Perception of Facial Emotion

Facial expressions aid social transactions and serve as socialization tools, with smiles signaling approval and reward, and angry faces signaling disapproval and punishment. The present study examined whether the subjective experience of positive vs. negative facial expressions differs between child...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Picardo, Rochelle, Baron, Andrew S., Anderson, Adam K., Todd, Rebecca M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703339/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26734940
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145643
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author Picardo, Rochelle
Baron, Andrew S.
Anderson, Adam K.
Todd, Rebecca M.
author_facet Picardo, Rochelle
Baron, Andrew S.
Anderson, Adam K.
Todd, Rebecca M.
author_sort Picardo, Rochelle
collection PubMed
description Facial expressions aid social transactions and serve as socialization tools, with smiles signaling approval and reward, and angry faces signaling disapproval and punishment. The present study examined whether the subjective experience of positive vs. negative facial expressions differs between children and adults. Specifically, we examined age-related differences in biases toward happy and angry facial expressions. Young children (5–7 years) and young adults (18–29 years) rated the intensity of happy and angry expressions as well as levels of experienced arousal. Results showed that young children—but not young adults—rated happy facial expressions as both more intense and arousing than angry faces. This finding, which we replicated in two independent samples, was not due to differences in the ability to identify facial expressions, and suggests that children are more tuned to information in positive expressions. Together these studies provide evidence that children see unambiguous adult emotional expressions through rose-colored glasses, and suggest that what is emotionally relevant can shift with development.
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spelling pubmed-47033392016-01-15 Tuning to the Positive: Age-Related Differences in Subjective Perception of Facial Emotion Picardo, Rochelle Baron, Andrew S. Anderson, Adam K. Todd, Rebecca M. PLoS One Research Article Facial expressions aid social transactions and serve as socialization tools, with smiles signaling approval and reward, and angry faces signaling disapproval and punishment. The present study examined whether the subjective experience of positive vs. negative facial expressions differs between children and adults. Specifically, we examined age-related differences in biases toward happy and angry facial expressions. Young children (5–7 years) and young adults (18–29 years) rated the intensity of happy and angry expressions as well as levels of experienced arousal. Results showed that young children—but not young adults—rated happy facial expressions as both more intense and arousing than angry faces. This finding, which we replicated in two independent samples, was not due to differences in the ability to identify facial expressions, and suggests that children are more tuned to information in positive expressions. Together these studies provide evidence that children see unambiguous adult emotional expressions through rose-colored glasses, and suggest that what is emotionally relevant can shift with development. Public Library of Science 2016-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4703339/ /pubmed/26734940 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145643 Text en © 2016 Picardo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
spellingShingle Research Article
Picardo, Rochelle
Baron, Andrew S.
Anderson, Adam K.
Todd, Rebecca M.
Tuning to the Positive: Age-Related Differences in Subjective Perception of Facial Emotion
title Tuning to the Positive: Age-Related Differences in Subjective Perception of Facial Emotion
title_full Tuning to the Positive: Age-Related Differences in Subjective Perception of Facial Emotion
title_fullStr Tuning to the Positive: Age-Related Differences in Subjective Perception of Facial Emotion
title_full_unstemmed Tuning to the Positive: Age-Related Differences in Subjective Perception of Facial Emotion
title_short Tuning to the Positive: Age-Related Differences in Subjective Perception of Facial Emotion
title_sort tuning to the positive: age-related differences in subjective perception of facial emotion
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703339/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26734940
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145643
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