Responses to facial emotion and psychopathology

Schizophrenics, anxious-neurotics, and nonpatient controls were asked to recognize facial affect in photographs depicting six emotions and a neutral expression. The time elapsed between presentation of the photograph and response to it was also noted. Schizophrenics were significantly less accurate at judging the expressed affect and had the largest mean response time compared to others. Preference to interact with the type of affect expressions was also analyzed. Happy and neutral expressions were chosen, while fearful and angry expressions were rejected by neurotic and control subjects. Schizophrenics were largely inconsistent in their choice.