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Do Subliminal Fearful Facial Expressions Capture Attention?
Diane Baier1,2, Marleen Kempkes1, Thomas Ditye1,3
1Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Frontiers in Psychology
|May 2, 2022
Summary
Fearful facial expressions do not automatically capture attention without awareness. Studies show no evidence of attention capture by invisible or visible fearful faces, challenging existing theories.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Fearful facial expressions are often assumed to automatically capture attention.
- This automatic attention capture is hypothesized to occur independently of conscious awareness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether fearful facial expressions capture attention in an awareness-independent manner.
- To test if attention capture by fearful faces is stimulus-driven, even when presented subliminally.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Participants searched for a neutral face with a preceding invisible emotional (fearful/disgusted) or neutral face cue. Behavioral data (reaction time, error rates) and event-related potentials (N2pc) were analyzed.
- Experiment 2: Visible fearful faces were used as targets to enhance potential awareness-independent capture.
Main Results:
- No evidence of attention capture by fearful or disgusted faces was found in Experiment 1, neither behaviorally nor in N2pc measures.
- Experiment 2 also failed to demonstrate a significant attention-capture effect, even with visible fearful faces.
Conclusions:
- Fearful facial expressions do not appear to capture attention in an awareness-independent fashion.
- The findings challenge theories suggesting automatic, unconscious attentional capture by negative emotional stimuli.
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