DECODING EMOTIONAL EXPERSSIONS: INTERACTION OF PERCEIVED RACE AND IMPLICIT RACIAL PREFERENCES

Authors

  • Ã…se Ines-Ker
  • Fredrik Björklund
  • Patrik Bratkovic

Abstract

Two experiments investigated whether negative attitudes towards an out-group interferes with perception of emotional expressions on faces of differing ethnicity. selectively process either emotional or racial information was assessed using the Garner Interference Task (GIT). The stimuli consisted of photographs of Scandinavian-appearing (s) or Middle-Eastern-appearing (ME) men expressing either happiness or anger. Participants either classified the faces according to emotional expression, or according to apparent race. To assess attitudes towards Middle-Easterners and Scandinavians, participants performed a Swedish-Moslem IAT. The emotion-GIT revealed interference from ethnicity, which also interacted with the IAT such that those with low IAT scores (ME preference) showed greatest interference for angry ME faces whereas those with high IAT scores showed a facilitation for S happy faces. Emotional expression generally did not interfere with processing in the race- GIT, although individuals with low IAT scores showed facilitation for angry ME faces.

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