University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Sex differences in scanning faces: does attention to the eyes explain female superiority in facial expression recognition?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 18:30 authored by Jessica K Hall, Sam B Hutton, Michael J Morgan
Previous meta-analyses support a female advantage in decoding non-verbal emotion (Hall, 1978, 1984), yet the mechanisms underlying this advantage are not understood. The present study examined whether the female advantage is related to greater female attention to the eyes. Eyetracking techniques were used to measure attention to the eyes in 19 males and 20 females during a facial expression recognition task. Women were faster and more accurate in their expression recognition compared with men, and women looked more at the eyes than men. Positive relationships were observed between dwell time and number of fixations to the eyes and both accuracy of facial expression recognition and speed of facial expression recognition. These results support the hypothesis that the female advantage in facial expression recognition is related to greater female attention to the eyes.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Cognition and Emotion

ISSN

0269-9931

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

4

Volume

24

Page range

629-637

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Notes

Co-author and DPhil supervisor of first author

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC