Abstract

GORDILLO-LEON, Fernando; MESTAS-HERNANDEZ, Lilia; PEREZ-NIETO, Miguel A  and  ARANA-MARTINEZ, José M. Gender differences in the assessment of the emotional intensity of the facial expressions of happiness and sadness. Escritos de Psicología [online]. 2021, vol.14, n.1, pp.1-10.  Epub Sep 20, 2021. ISSN 1989-3809.  https://dx.doi.org/10.24310/espsiescpsi.v14i1.12675.

Differences between men and women in the recognition of emotions could be due to the greater sensitivity of women to the subtle signals of emotional facial expressions. The objective of this research was to analyze gender differences in the assessment of changes in the emotional intensity of facial expressions of happiness and sadness. The sample comprised 222 participants (77.5% women) aged between 18 and 30 years. Ambiguous facial expressions were presented with different percentages of happiness and sadness (high ambiguity: 50% -50%; medium ambiguity: 25% -75%; low ambiguity: 0% -100%). The participants rated the degree to which an ambiguous expression reflected greater emotional intensity (happiness or sadness) than a neutral expression. Under conditions of medium ambiguity (25% sadness - 75% happiness), greater emotional intensity in expressions of happiness was perceived by women than men. Also under medium ambiguity, women perceived greater affective intensity in expressions of happiness (25% sadness - 75% happiness) than in expressions of sadness (75% sadness - 25% happiness). The results are discussed from the perspective of social role theory, and their implications are analyzed within the complex social context in which human beings interact.

Keywords : Happiness; emotional intensity; sensitivity; sadness.

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