Emotional responses to disfigured faces and Disgust Sensitivity: An eye-tracking study

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Perception

Background:

• Facial disfigurement is known to attract attention and elicit negative emotional responses.
• However, empirical evidence directly linking attention to disfigurement with specific negative emotions remains limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between attentional and emotional reactions to facial disfigurement.
• To explore how the location of disfigurement influences emotional responses.
• To examine the role of Disgust Sensitivity in attention and emotional reactions to facial disfigurement.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an eye-tracker to measure participants' visual attention (fixation) on specific facial areas (internal expressive features, forehead) in photographs.
• Assessed participants' emotional reactions to images of individuals with varying types of facial disfigurement.
• Measured individual differences in Disgust Sensitivity.

Main Results:

• Disfigurement of internal expressive features elicited stronger negative emotional reactions compared to forehead disfigurement.
• Attention directed towards the area of facial disfigurement was associated with heightened negative emotions (e.g., embarrassment, sympathy, disgust, repulsion) and surprise.
• Increased attention to disfigurement and the intensity of negative emotional responses correlated with higher levels of Disgust Sensitivity.

Conclusions:

• Attention to facial disfigurement is demonstrably linked to negative emotional experiences.
• The location of disfigurement significantly impacts the intensity of emotional reactions.
• Disgust Sensitivity is a key individual trait influencing how people attend to and emotionally respond to facial disfigurement.