Age differences in the decoding of affect authenticity and intensity

Second and sixth grade primary school children and adults were tested to determine their ability to: (1) detect maskings, inhibitions and simulations of feelings of like and dislike and (2) discriminate intensity differences in spontaneous facial expressions of these affects. Adults scored at chance level with respect to detecting negative simulations, while their detection scores for the other forms of pretense were above chance and did not differ from each other. The children did as well as the adults in detecting the maskings and inhibitions of negative emotions. It is assumed that the theatricality of the reactions was the deception cue. The children did worse than the adults, and even scored below chance, in detecting the maskings and inhibitions of positive feelings and the simulations of negative feelings. This was explained as the consequence of a positivity bias. Adults did significantly better in discriminating the intensity of expressions than did the two groups of children. In addition, the sixth graders outperformed the second graders. In none of the age groups were there any significant correlations, either between the deception detection scores and the ability to discriminate intensity differences, or among the detection scores for the three types of deception.I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Frens Vonken in the collection and analysis of the data, and of the reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts, and of Marianne Sanders in the preparation of the final text.