facial expressions basic facial expressions complex facial expressions social sexual facial expressions emotional expressions developmental neuroscience face processing perceptual threshold
Abstract:
Many contextual factors seem to influence how we perceive and interpret the social signals inherently present in faces. With neural, developmental, and perhaps even behavioral mechanisms influencing face perception, it is irrefutably a collaborative and highly sensitive phenomenon. This study investigates how the context of romantic partnerships might influence one’s perception of social sexual facial expressions (i.e. brokenhearted, desirous, and jealous). We predict that individuals who are in committed romantic relationships will display lower thresholds to detect these expressions, suggesting that through continued practice in their personal relationships, these individuals have developed stronger competencies of social sexual emotions. Though this study contains only preliminary data and findings, the results demonstrate that there is a strong likelihood that relationship status and history might influence perceptual sensitivity in regards to social sexual facial expressions.
