TY - JOUR
T1 - Positivity bias in judging ingroup members' emotional expressions
AU - Lazerus, Talya
AU - Ingbretsen, Zachary A.
AU - Stolier, Ryan M.
AU - Freeman, Jonathan B.
AU - Cikara, Mina
N1 - Funding Information:
Talya Lazerus, Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University; Zachary A. Ingbretsen, Department of Psychology, Harvard University; Ryan M. Stolier and Jonathan B. Freeman, Department of Psychology, New York University; Mina Cikara, Department of Psychology, Harvard University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - We investigated how group membership impacts valence judgments of ingroup and outgroup members' emotional expressions. In Experiment 1, participants, randomized into 2 novel, competitive groups, rated the valence of in- and outgroup members' facial expressions (e.g., fearful, happy, neutral) using a circumplex affect grid. Across all emotions, participants judged ingroup members' expressions as more positive than outgroup members' expressions. In Experiment 2, participants categorized fearful and happy expressions as being either positive or negative using a mouse-tracking paradigm. Participants exhibited the most direct trajectories toward the "positive" label for ingroup happy expressions and an initial attraction toward positive for ingroup expressions of fear, with outgroup emotion trajectories falling in between. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 and demonstrated that the effect could not be accounted for by targets' gaze direction. Overall, people judged ingroup faces as more positive, regardless of emotion, both in deliberate and implicit judgments.
AB - We investigated how group membership impacts valence judgments of ingroup and outgroup members' emotional expressions. In Experiment 1, participants, randomized into 2 novel, competitive groups, rated the valence of in- and outgroup members' facial expressions (e.g., fearful, happy, neutral) using a circumplex affect grid. Across all emotions, participants judged ingroup members' expressions as more positive than outgroup members' expressions. In Experiment 2, participants categorized fearful and happy expressions as being either positive or negative using a mouse-tracking paradigm. Participants exhibited the most direct trajectories toward the "positive" label for ingroup happy expressions and an initial attraction toward positive for ingroup expressions of fear, with outgroup emotion trajectories falling in between. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 and demonstrated that the effect could not be accounted for by targets' gaze direction. Overall, people judged ingroup faces as more positive, regardless of emotion, both in deliberate and implicit judgments.
KW - Emotion
KW - Groups
KW - Judgment
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U2 - 10.1037/emo0000227
DO - 10.1037/emo0000227
M3 - Article
C2 - 27775407
AN - SCOPUS:85000702981
SN - 1528-3542
VL - 16
SP - 1117
EP - 1125
JO - Emotion
JF - Emotion
IS - 8
ER -