2011 Volume 9 Issue 2 Pages 89-95
When we read someone's facial expressions, which part of the face is more important, the upper or the lower part? Are there any difference between the relative important facial parts (upper vs. lower) and whole face in emotional ratings of facial expressions? The stimulus materials were composed facial expressions of six emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) and neutral expression, created by combining the upper parts (including eye, eyebrow, and forehead) and the lower parts (including nose, mouth, and cheek) of pictures. Specifically, the upper half was one expression and the lower half was neutral (e.g., anger-neutral) or same (e.g., anger-anger). Or the lower half was one expression and the upper half was neutral (e.g., neutral-anger). The participants were shown the facial stimulus and asked to rate each of these for the intensity of the six emotions. The results indicated that the upper areas of the face were more strongly associated with anger, surprise, and sadness, whereas the lower areas were more important in recognizing fear and happiness. Moreover, in recognizing facial expressions, the rating for the relative important facial upper parts was not significantly different from that of the rating for the complete face. Further inspection of expression confusion revealed that "anger" and "fear" were consistently confused with "disgust" and "surprise," respectively.
