The Relative Dominance of Different Facial Expressions of Emotion under Conditions of Perceptual Ambiguity

Abstract

Facial expressions of happiness, excitement, surprise, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, and calm were presented stereoscopically to create pair wise perceptual conflict. Dominance of one expression over another as the most common result, but basic emotions (happiness, fear, etc.) failed to dominate non-basic emotions (excitement, calm), Instead, extremely pleasant or extremely unpleasant emotions dominated less valenced emotions (e.g. surprise). Blends of the presented pairs also occurred, mainly when the emotions were adjacent according to a circumplex structure of emotion. Blends were most common among negatively valenced emotions, such as fear, anger, and disgust.