The effect of family environment in the recognition of brief displays of emotion F Felisberti, L Cobley, E Hall, A Williams |
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Psychology Department, Kingston University, United Kingdom
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| Ekman and Friesen [1971, JPSP, 17: 124-129] suggested that in certain situations we may choose to hide our feelings, but fail and show our true feelings for a fraction of a second (up to 200 ms). Such “leaked” emotional expressions are referred to as microexpressions. We investigated whether the family environment (birth order and number of siblings) could modulate the participants’ ability to recognize facial microexpressions of emotion. The microexpressions (100 ms and 150 ms) tested were anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness and sadness. Large individual differences were observed, both in relation to accuracy and reaction time. Results showed a significant difference in the recognition of fear between participants with small (0-1) and large (=> 2) number of siblings. There was also a significant difference in the recognition of anger related to the participants’ order of birth (eldest vs. youngest/ middle siblings). The results suggested that the recognition of microexpressions in adults can be affected by the complex set of interactions that occurred between siblings (or in their absence). |
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