Depressive Tendency Biases Ensemble Perception of Emotional Faces.
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| Title: | Depressive Tendency Biases Ensemble Perception of Emotional Faces. |
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| Authors: | Lin, Zhen (AUTHOR), Gong, Mingliang (AUTHOR), Chen, Yufei (AUTHOR), Sheng, Han (AUTHOR), Xiong, Jingyuan (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Depression & Anxiety (1091-4269). 11/17/2025, Vol. 2025, p1-13. 13p. |
| Subjects: | Mental depression, Emotion recognition, Judgment (Psychology), Psychological research, Psychological distress, Implicit bias, Facial expression |
| Abstract: | Previous studies have shown that individuals with depression have an impaired ability in encoding single facial expressions. However, little is known about how depressive tendencies—subclinical emotional distress that may progress to clinical depression—affect the perception of the average emotion of multiple faces. To address this question, the current study investigated whether depressive tendencies affect explicit or implicit ensemble perception of emotion. In Study 1, participants viewed sets of four emotionally varying faces (ranging from angry to happy) for 2000 or 50 ms, then judged if a subsequent test face was angrier than the average emotion of the preceding set. Results showed that the high depressive symptom (HDS) group had a point of subjective equality (PSE) more biased toward anger compared to the low depressive symptom (LDS) group when exposure time was 2000 ms. However, this difference disappeared when the time was shortened to 50 ms. In Study 2, we assessed the automatic perception of ensemble emotion by requiring participants to judge whether a probe face was a member of the preceding set, a task that does not explicitly demand averaging. Results indicated that the HDS and LDS groups had a similar likelihood of misidentifying the set mean as a member under both 2000 and 50 ms conditions, indicating a comparable automatic coding of ensemble emotion. Together, the current research demonstrates that depressive tendencies can bias ensemble coding for emotional faces at explicit level but not at implicit level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Depression & Anxiety (1091-4269) is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | Previous studies have shown that individuals with depression have an impaired ability in encoding single facial expressions. However, little is known about how depressive tendencies—subclinical emotional distress that may progress to clinical depression—affect the perception of the average emotion of multiple faces. To address this question, the current study investigated whether depressive tendencies affect explicit or implicit ensemble perception of emotion. In Study 1, participants viewed sets of four emotionally varying faces (ranging from angry to happy) for 2000 or 50 ms, then judged if a subsequent test face was angrier than the average emotion of the preceding set. Results showed that the high depressive symptom (HDS) group had a point of subjective equality (PSE) more biased toward anger compared to the low depressive symptom (LDS) group when exposure time was 2000 ms. However, this difference disappeared when the time was shortened to 50 ms. In Study 2, we assessed the automatic perception of ensemble emotion by requiring participants to judge whether a probe face was a member of the preceding set, a task that does not explicitly demand averaging. Results indicated that the HDS and LDS groups had a similar likelihood of misidentifying the set mean as a member under both 2000 and 50 ms conditions, indicating a comparable automatic coding of ensemble emotion. Together, the current research demonstrates that depressive tendencies can bias ensemble coding for emotional faces at explicit level but not at implicit level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 10914269 |
| DOI: | 10.1155/da/9996485 |
