Can personality, known to shape emotional experiences and gaze behaviors, influence the recognition of subtle emotional facial expressions? Do these personality-related gaze patterns change with emotional intensity? To explore this, we conducted an eye-tracking experiment with 116 participants who identified dynamic emotional facial expressions of varying intensities (anger, fear, disgust, happiness). Using a multidimensional approach to personality, we clustered participants based on Big Five personality dimensions and anxiety scores, distinguishing those scoring high in dimensions associated with positive (extroversion, agreeableness) versus negative emotions (neuroticism, social anxiety). Results showed that individuals with a positively-colored personality focused more on the mouth (likely seeking happiness cues), while those with a negatively-colored personality focused more on the eyes (likely seeking signs of negative emotions). However, at higher intensity, these gaze patterns persisted only when emotions matched participants’ personality (individuals with a negatively-colored personality focused more on the eyes than others, but only when viewing fear or anger). Yet, personality did not affect the sensory discrimination or decision-making processes for subtle emotion identification. Thus, personality, as a multidimensional construct, seems to influence gaze strategies, facilitating emotionally congruent experiences without hindering the recognition of others’ emotions, even subtle ones, which is crucial for effective social interactions.
AndricS.MaricN. P.KnezevicG.MihaljevicM.MirjanicT.VelthorstE.OsJ. V. (2015). Neuroticism and facial emotion recognition in healthy adults. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 10, 160–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12212
2.
BarghJ. A.LombardiW. J.HigginsE. T. (1988). Automaticity of chronically accessible constructs in person × situation effects on person perception: It’s just a matter of time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(4), 599.
3.
BarrettL. F.AdolphsR.MarsellaS.MartinezA. M.PollakS. D. (2019). Emotional expressions reconsidered: Challenges to inferring emotion from human facial movements. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 20(1), 1–68.
4.
BlaisC.FisetD.RoyC.Saumure RégimbaldC.GosselinF. (2017). Eye fixation patterns for categorizing static and dynamic facial expressions. Emotion, 17(7), 1107.
5.
BouldE.MorrisN. (2008). Role of motion signals in recognizing subtle facial expressions of emotion. British Journal of Psychology, 99(2), 167–189.
6.
BürknerP. C. (2017). Brms: An r package for bayesian multilevel models using stan. Journal of Statistical Software, 80, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v080.i01
7.
CaldaraR.MielletS. (2011). I map: A novel method for statistical fixation mapping of eye movement data. Behavior Research Methods, 43, 864–878.
8.
CalderA. J.KeaneJ.YoungA. W.DeanM. (2000). Configural information in facial expression perception. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26, 527–551. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.26.2.527
9.
CalvoM. G.Fernández-MartínA.RecioG.LundqvistD. (2018). Human observers and automated assessment of dynamic emotional facial expressions: Kdef-dyn database validation. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2052. https://doi.org/10.3389/FPSYG.2018.02052/FULL
10.
CalvoM. G.NummenmaaL. (2008). Detection of emotional faces: Salient physical features guide effective visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137(3), 471.
11.
CartaudA.LenglinV.CoelloY. (2022). Contrast effect of emotional context on interpersonal distance with neutral social stimuli. Cognition, 218, 104913.
12.
ChenJ.van den BosE.KarchJ. D.WestenbergP. M. (2023). Social anxiety is related to reduced face gaze during a naturalistic social interaction. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 36(4), 460–474.
13.
DarwinC. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. John Murray.
14.
DinkJ. W.FergusonB. (2015). Eyetrackingr: An r library for eye-tracking data analysis. http://www.eyetrackingr.com
15.
DotyT. J.JapeeS.IngvarM.UngerleiderL. G. (2013). Fearful face detection sensitivity in healthy adults correlates with anxiety-related traits. Emotion, 13(2), 183.
16.
DowensM.CalvoM. G. (2003). Genuine memory bias versus response bias in anxiety. Cognition and Emotion, 17(6), 843–857.
17.
EisenbarthH.AlpersG. W. (2011). Happy mouth and sad eyes: Scanning emotional facial expressions. Emotion, 11(4), 860.
18.
EkmanP.FriesenW. V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17, 124–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030377
19.
EkmanP.FriesenW. V. (1978). Facial action coding system. Environmental Psychology and Nonverbal Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1037/t27734-000
20.
EkmanP.O’SullivanM. (1988). The role of context in interpreting facial expression: Comment on russell and fehr (1987). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117, 86–88. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.117.1.86
21.
EllingsenE. F.DrevsjøS.VoldenF.WattenR. G. (2019). Extraversion and focus of attention on facial emotions: An experimental eye-tracking study. Current Issues in Personality Psychology, 7(2), 91–97.
22.
ElliotA. J.ThrashT. M. (2002). Approach-avoidance motivation in personality: Approach and avoidance temperaments and goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(5), 804.
23.
EstevesF.ÖhmanA. (1993). Masking the face: Recognition of emotional facial expressions as a function of the parameters of backward masking. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 34, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.1993.tb01096.x
24.
GreenD. M.SwetsJ. A. (1966). Signal detection theory and psychophysics (Vol. 1). Wiley New York.
25.
GüntherV.KropidlowskiA.SchmidtF. M.KoelkebeckK.KerstingA.SuslowT. (2021). Attentional processes during emotional face perception in social anxiety disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis of eye-tracking findings. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 111, 110353. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PNPBP.2021.110353
Gutiérrez-GarcíaA.CalvoM. G. (2017). Social anxiety and threat-related interpretation of dynamic facial expressions: Sensitivity and response bias. Personality and Individual Differences, 107, 10–16.
28.
Gutiérrez-GarcíaA.Fernandez-MartinA.Del LíbanoM.CalvoM. G. (2019). Selective gaze direction and interpretation of facial expressions in social anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 147, 297–305.
29.
HautusM. J. (1995). Corrections for extreme proportions and their biasing effects on estimated values of d′. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 27, 46–51. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03203619/METRICS
HenningerF.ShevchenkoY.MertensU.KieslichP. (2019). Lab. js: A free, open, online study builder. psyarxiv.com.
32.
JackR. E.CaldaraR.SchynsP. G. (2012). Internal representations reveal cultural diversity in expectations of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(1), 19.
33.
JackR. E.SunW.DelisI.GarrodO. G.SchynsP. G. (2016). Four not six: Revealing culturally common facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(6), 708.
34.
JohnO. P.SrivastavaS. (1999). The big-five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In PervinL. A.JohnO. P. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102–138). Guilford Press.
35.
KalénineS.MirmanD.MiddletonE. L.BuxbaumL. J. (2012). Temporal dynamics of activation of thematic and functional knowledge during conceptual processing of manipulable artifacts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(5), 1274.
36.
KangE. (2014). Extraversion and recognition for emotional words: Effects of valence, frequency, and task-difficulty. Korean Journal of Cognitive Science, 25(4), 385.
37.
Karmon-PresserA.MeiranN. (2019). A signal-detection approach to individual differences in negative feeling. Heliyon, 5(4), e01344.
38.
LagattutaK. H.KramerH. J. (2017). Try to look on the bright side: Children and adults can (sometimes) override their tendency to prioritize negative faces. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000247
39.
LebertA.Vergilino-PerezD.ChabyL. (2024). Keeping distance or getting closer: How others’ emotions shape approach-avoidance postural behaviors and preferred interpersonal distance. PLoS One, 19(2), e0298069.
40.
LeeE.KangJ. I.ParkI. H.KimJ.-J.AnS. K. (2008). Is a neutral face really evaluated as being emotionally neutral?Psychiatry Research, 157(1–3), 77–85.
41.
LibbyW. L.YaklevichD. (1973). Personality determinants of eye contact and direction of gaze aversion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27(2), 197.
42.
LiebowitzM. R. (1987). Social phobia. Guilford Publications.
43.
MacknikS. L.LivingstoneM. S. (1998). Neuronal correlates of visibility and invisibility in the primate visual system. Nature Neuroscience, 1(2), 144–149.
44.
MasulliP.GalazkaM.EberhardD.JohnelsJ. Å.GillbergC.BillstedtE.HadjikhaniN.AndersenT. S. (2022). Data-driven analysis of gaze patterns in face perception: Methodological and clinical contributions. Cortex, 147, 9–23.
45.
McCrackinS. D.CapozziF.MayrandF.RisticJ. (2022). Face masks impair basic emotion recognition: Group effects and individual variability. Social Psychology, 54(1–2), 4–15. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/A000470
46.
McCraeR. R.Costa JrP. T. (1997). Personality trait structure as a human universal. American Psychologist, 52(5), 509.
47.
MirmanD. (2014). Growth curve analysis and visualization using r. Chapman & Hall/CRC.
PavicK.OkerA.ChetouaniM.ChabyL. (2021). Age-related changes in gaze behaviour during social interaction: An eye-tracking study with an embodied conversational agent. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74, 1128–1139. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021820982165
50.
PerlmanS. B.MorrisJ. P.WykB. C. V.GreenS. R.DoyleJ. L.PelphreyK. A. (2009). Individual differences in personality predict how people look at faces. PLoS One, 4, e5952. https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0005952
51.
PlaisantO.CourtoisR.RéveillèreC.MendelsohnG. A.JohnO. P. (2010). Validation par analyse factorielle du big five inventory français (bfi-fr). analyse convergente avec le neo-pi-r. Annales Médico-psychologiques, revue psychiatrique, 168, 97–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.AMP.2009.09.003
52.
R Core Team. (2018). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org/
53.
RoyC.BlaisC.FisetD.GosselinF. (2010). Visual information extraction for static and dynamic facial expression of emotions: An eye-tracking experiment. Journal of Vision, 10(7), 531–531.
54.
RStudio Team. (2020). Rstudio: Integrated development environment for r. RStudio, PBC. http://www.rstudio.com/
55.
RustingC. L. (1998). Personality, mood, and cognitive processing of emotional information: Three conceptual frameworks. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 165.
56.
SarsamS. M.Al-SamarraieH.AlzahraniA. I. (2023). Influence of personality traits on users’ viewing behaviour. Journal of Information Science, 49(1), 233–247.
57.
SawadaR.SatoW.NakashimaR.KumadaT. (2022). How are emotional facial expressions detected rapidly and accurately? A diffusion model analysis. Cognition, 229, 105235.
58.
SmithM. L.CottrellG. W.GosselinF.SchynsP. G. (2005). Transmitting and decoding facial expressions. Psychological Science, 16(3), 184–189.
59.
VaidyaA. R.JinC.FellowsL. K. (2014). Eye spy: The predictive value of fixation patterns in detecting subtle and extreme emotions from faces. Cognition, 133(2), 443–456.
WellsL. J.GillespieS. M.RotshteinP. (2016). Identification of emotional facial expressions: Effects of expression, intensity, and sex on eye gaze. PLoS One, 11(12), e0168307.
63.
WrightR. D.WardL. M. (2008). Orienting of attention. Oxford University Press.
64.
XavierJ.MagnatJ.ShermanA.GauthierS.CohenD.ChabyL. (2016). A developmental and clinical perspective of rhythmic interpersonal coordination: From mimicry toward the interconnection of minds. Journal of Physiology-Paris, 110(4), 420–426.
65.
YaoS. N.NoteI.FangetF.AlbuissonE.BouvardM.JalenquesI.CottrauxJ. (1999). Social anxiety in patients with social phobia: Validation of the liebowitz social anxiety scale: The french version. L’Encephale, 25, 429–435.
66.
YoonK. L.YangJ.-W.ChongS. C.OhK. J. (2014). Perceptual sensitivity and response bias in social anxiety: An application of signal detection theory. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 38, 551–558.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
