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Low mood, not anxiety, connected with micro facial expression recognition
Kasia Wezowski1, Ian S Penton-Voak2,3
1School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. kasia.contact@gmail.com.
Scientific Reports
|November 29, 2025
Summary
Trait anxiety does not significantly impact facial micro expression recognition or anger perception. However, low mood was linked to better micro expression recognition and a bias towards perceiving neutral faces as sad.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Facial expression recognition is crucial for social interaction.
- Previous studies suggest anxiety may impair emotion recognition, but findings are inconsistent.
- The specific impact of anxiety on micro expression recognition remains under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between trait anxiety and micro expression recognition.
- To examine if high trait anxiety is associated with poorer overall micro expression recognition.
- To test if high trait anxiety predicts better recognition of angry facial expressions.
Main Methods:
- 401 participants completed self-report measures for trait and state anxiety, and depression.
- Participants underwent micro facial expression recognition tasks.
- Demographic information was collected.
Main Results:
- The study found no significant evidence that trait anxiety affects overall micro expression recognition or anger recognition.
- Low mood was associated with improved micro expression recognition scores.
- A bias towards recognizing neutral faces as sad was observed in relation to mood.
Conclusions:
- Trait anxiety does not appear to have a robust effect on the recognition of general emotions or anger.
- Previous positive findings linking anxiety and emotion recognition may be confounded by mood or age.
- Mood congruence may influence facial expression interpretation, particularly with neutral and sad expressions.
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