Sex differences in the encoding and decoding of negative facial emotions

To study the effects of gender on ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion, two separate samples of male and female undergraduates (727 in Study 1, 399 in Study 2) judged 120 color photographs of people posing one of four negative emotions: anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. Overall, females exceeded males in their ability to recognize emotions whether expressed by males or by females. As an exception, males were superior to females in recognizing male anger. The findings are discussed in terms of social sex-roles.Portions of this paper were presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, New York: August, 1987.     

The effect of type of task on children's identification of facial expressions

The performance of children at ages 4, 6, and 8 years was compared on the four types of task most often used in facial expression studies with children. We examined whether the order of mastery of emotions at different ages was constant across tasks, or alternatively, if it was task-specific. The relative difficulty of the tasks was also investigated, with the aim of arranging them into a hierarchy of increasing difficulty. The four tasks used were situation discrimination, matching discrimination, forced choice labeling, and free labeling. Accuracy was found to increase with age, but the interaction between age, type of task, and emotion was not significant. These results suggest that conclusions about the ordering of specific emotions from least to most difficult at different ages is not task dependent. Nevertheless, a significant interaction found between task and emotion suggests that such conclusions should specify which type of task generated the pattern. A hierarchy of difficulty for the tasks was only partially supported. Performance on the first three tasks was very similar but performance on free labeling was significantly poorer.     

Children's facial and gestural decoding and encoding: Relations between skills and with popularity

This study examined preschool children's decoding and encoding of facial emotions and gestures, interrelationships between these skills, and the relationship between these skills and children's popularity. Subjects were 34 preschoolers (eighteen 4-year-olds, sixteen 5-year-olds), with an equal number of boys and girls. Children's nonverbal skill was measured on four tasks: decoding emotions, decoding gestures, encoding facial emotions, and encoding gestures. Children's popularity was measured by teacher ratings. Analyses revealed the following major findings: (a) There were no age or gender effects on performance on any of the tasks. (b) Children performed better on decoding than encoding tasks, suggesting that nonverbal comprehension precedes production. Also, children appeared better at facial emotion skills than gesture skills. There were significant correlations between decoding and encoding gestures, and between encoding gestures and encoding emotions. (c) Multiple regression analyses indicated that encoding emotions and decoding gestures were marginally predictive of popularity. In addition, when children's scores on the four tasks were combined via z-score transformations, children's aggregate nonverbal skill correlated significantly with peer popularity.Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Society, San Diego, CA, June, 1992. We thank the Child Study Center of Wellesley College, Janine Jarrell, Jennifer Mascola, and David Mills for their cooperation, and Carlene Nelson, Mark Runco, and Ed Stearns for statistical support. We also appreciate the valuable suggestions from Robin Akert, Annick Mansfield, the anonymous reviewers, and especially the guest editor.     

An analysis of the encoding and decoding of spontaneous and posed smiles: The use of facial electromyography

Twenty subjects judged 80 video segments containing brief episodes of smiling behavior for expression intensity and happiness of the stimulus person. The video records were produced under instructions to (a) pose, (b) experience a happy feeling or (c) to both experience and show a happy feeling. An analysis of the integrated facial electromyogram (EMG), recorded over four muscle regions (zygomaticus major, depressor anguli oris, corrugator supercilii, andmasseter), showed that judgments of happiness and of intensity of expression could be predicted in a multiple regression analysis (multipleR = .64 for perceived happiness and .79 for perceived expression intensity). The perception of happiness was affected by EMG activity in regions other thanzygomaticus major. The use of parameters other than the mean of the integrated EMG, namely variance, skewness, kurtosis and properties of the amplitude distributions across time, provided accurate classification of the elicitation conditions (pose happiness versus experience happiness) in a discriminant analysis. For the discrimination of posed and felt smiles variables describing aspects of facial activity in the temporal domain were more useful than any of the other measures. It is suggested that facial EMG can be a useful tool in the analysis of both the encoding and decoding of expressive behavior. The results indicate the advantage of using multiple-site EMG recordings as well as of using amplitude and temporal characteristics of the facial EMG measures.The research was supported in part by funds associated with the John Sloan Dickey Third Century Professorship (Kleck) and in part by grant BNS-8507600 from the National Science Foundation (Lanzetta). Ursula Hess and Arvid Kappas were supported by stipends from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service).     

Emotional traits and recognition of facial expression of emotion

The relationship between an individual's habitual, emotional dispositions or tendencies — an aspect of personality — and his ability to recognize facially expressed emotions was explored. Previous studies have used global scores of recognition accuracy across several emotions, but failed to examine the relationship between emotion traits and recognition of specific emotion expressions. In the present study, these more specific relationships were examined. Results indicated that females with an inhibited-non-assertive personality style tended to have poorer emotion recognition scores than more socially oriented females. In contrast, for males, the relationship between traits and recognition scores was much more emotion specific: Emotion traits were not significantly related to a global measure of recognition accuracy but were related to recognition rates of certain emotion expressions — sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. For most of the emotions, males appeared to be more likely to see what they feel. Possible explanations of the findings in terms of perceptual set and other mechanisms are discussed. Implications for clinical studies and research are noted. The study also highlights the importance of separate analysis of data for specific emotions, as well as for sex.     

Human facial expression judgment in a conversational context

Two hundred eighty male and female college students scaled thirty-five human face photographs for the degree of annoyance, interest, understanding, and spontaneity expressed. An individual differences analysis of the scaling data indicated independence of these expression dimensions and resulted in 11 like-perceiving subgroups of subjects. These homogeneous subgroups were characterized on the basis of their differential use of facial features within as well as between expression dimensions and on their differences in a test of figural creativity.The authors are grateful to Dr. Dina Anselmi and Dr. Michael Tirrell for their contributions to the Phase II data collection.     

The effect of expression sequence and expressor identity on judgments of the intensity of facial expression

Subjects were exposed to a sequence of facial expression photographs to determine whether viewing earlier expressions in a sequence would alter intensity judgments of a final expression in the sequence. Results showed that whether the preceding expressions were shown by the same person who displayed the final expression, or different people, intensity ratings of both sad and happy final expressions were enhanced when preceded by a sequence of contrasting as opposed to similar or identical facial expressions. Results are discussed from the perspective of adaptation-level theory.     

Nonverbal strategies for decoding deception

This study tested the hypothesis that judges who suspect deception would be less influenced by controllable channels (facial expresions) relative to leaky channels (voice and body) than judges who do not suspect deception. The Nonverbal Discrepancy Test, comprised of video (face or body) cues paired with audio cues, was administered to subjects with the information that the person shown in the test never lied, sometimes lied, or very often lied; in a fourth condition (control) there was no mention of deception. In some cases, the video and audio components of the discrepancy test depicted the same affect while in other cases they depicted different affects. Subjects who expected more deception were relatively less influenced by the facial component of the affectively discrepant video-audio pairings. These subjects were also less accurate at decoding affectively consistent videoaudio pairings, especially those involving facial cues. Finally, subjects who expected more deception became less accurate decoders of consistent video-audio pairings during the second half of the test but learned to recognize video-audio discrepancies better. The results suggest that suspicion of deception led subjects to discount facial cues. Results for the control group indicated that even in the absence of explicit information, discrepant messages create a suspicion of deception.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.     

Small-dollar children's savings accounts and children's college outcomes

This is paper one of four in the small-dollar children's savings account series, which, studies the relationship between children's small-dollar savings accounts and college enrollment and graduation. This series of papers uses different subsamples to examine three important research questions: (a) are children with savings of their own more likely to attend or graduate from college? (b) does dose (i.e., having no account, only basic savings, savings designated for school [of less than $1, $1 to $499, or $500 or more]) matter? and (c) is having savings designated for school more predictive than having basic savings alone? Paper one of this series uses aggregate data from the newest wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and its supplements. Propensity score weighted findings suggest that children who have a small amount of money (e.g., less than $1 or $1 to $499) designated for school are 3 times and 2.5 times more likely, respectively, to enroll in and graduate from college, respectively, than children with no account. Findings also show that having savings designated for school might have a stronger effect on relationship with children's college outcomes than having basic savings that can be used for any purpose. The paper concludes by explaining how policies that create national children's savings programs might help cue a psychological process in which children form an identities as college-savers.     

Effects of facial expression and stare duration on walking speed: Two field experiments

Two field experiments investigated the generality of the stare-escape phenomenon for pedestrians. Experiment 1, conducted at a traffic intersection, failed to replicate a previous finding that being stared at leads to faster walking speed. One hypothesis that could explain this failure is that the relatively short staring times used in Experiment 1 were insufficient for subjects to attribute a threatening meaning to the stare. In Experiment 2, conducted at a library elevator, duration of staring was systematically varied—either 2 seconds or more than 15 seconds. Consistent with the attribution time hypothesis, subjects increased walking speed after a long stare but decreased it after a short stare. In both experiments a smile coupled with a stare appeared to neutralize the effects of a stare alone.The authors would like to thank Clyde Hendrick for his valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Policy lessons from children's allowances for children's savings accounts

This article examines the history and current structure of children's allowances around the world as well as the history of such allowances in the United States in an effort to provide the United States with a policy framework for children's savings accounts. The authors also provide policy direction for children's savings accounts.     

Small-dollar children's saving accounts and children's college outcomes by race

This is paper three of four in the Small-Dollar Children Accounts series that studies the relationship between children's small dollar savings accounts and college enrollment and graduation. The series uses different subsamples to examine three important research questions: (a) Are children with savings of their own more likely to attend or graduate from college? (b) Does dosage (no account, only basic savings, savings designated for school of less than $1, $1 to $499, or $500 or more) matter? And (c) is designating for school more predictive of college enrollment or graduation than having basic undesignated savings alone? Using propensity score weighted data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its supplements we created multi-treatment dosages of savings accounts and amounts to answer these questions separately for black (n = 404) and white (n = 453) children. White children's savings are not significantly related to their college outcomes. Differently, compared to black children without savings accounts, black children are three times more likely to enroll in college when they have school savings of less than $1 and six times more likely when they have school savings of $1 to $499. Further, black children with school savings of $1 to $499 are four times more likely to graduate from college and black children with school savings of $500 or more are three-and-a-half times more likely to graduate from college, compared to those with no savings account. We suggest Child Development Accounts (CDAs) may be a promising tool for helping black children get to and through college.     

Small-dollar children's savings accounts and children's college outcomes by income level

This is paper two of four in the small-dollar children's savings account series in this issue that examines the relationship between children's small-dollar savings accounts and college enrollment and graduation. This series of papers uses different subsamples to examine three important research questions: (a) Are children with savings of their own more likely to attend or graduate from college; (b) Does dose (no account, only basic savings, savings designated for school of less than $1, $1 to $499, or $500 or more) matter; and (c) Is designating savings for school more predictive than having basic savings alone. Using propensity score weighted data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its supplements we created multi-treatment doses of savings accounts and amounts to answer these questions separately for children from low- and moderate-income (below $50,000; n = 512) and high income ($50,000 or above; n = 345) households. We find that low- and moderate-income children may be more likely to enroll in and graduate from college when they have small-dollar savings accounts with money designated for school. A low- and moderate-income child who has school savings of $1 to $499 prior to reaching college age is over three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate from college than a child with no savings account. These findings lead to policy implications that are also discussed.     

Accuracy of the judgment of facial expression of emotions as a function of sex and level of education

The purpose of this study is to examine the recognition of facial expressions of six emotions as a function of sex and level of education (high school, college, university) of the subjects. Three hundred French-speaking citizens of Quebec had to judge which emotion was expressed in various facial stimuli presented on slides. Results show that overall, the recognition of emotions was very good. However, there were significant and strong differences between emotions and sex and levels of education did not have strong effects on the results.This research was supported by grant EQ-1717 from Fonds FCAC (Gouvernment du Quebec).     

The future of children's rights

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was a great achievement. The rights strategy must continue to be pursued. The Convention itself is an imperfect instrument and a new Convention or Protocols needs to address many children whose rights are currently neglected, including disabled children, gay children, girl children and street children. Rights themselves need rethinking, and so does the reporting and implementation process. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Taking children's rights seriously

SUMMARY. How are we to justify our criticisms of current policies in relation to children? This paper, delivered as the Fourth Brian Jackson Memorial Lecture at Huddersfield Polytechnic on 6 November 1987, argues that we need to address the questions of why we ought to take children's rights seriously and of how this can be done. The article examines the moral grounds for rights for children and concludes by suggesting some institutional changes including the establishment of a Children's Ombudsperson. The suggestion is also made that a ‘child impact statement’ should be attached to all new legislation and other major policy statements.