The Effect of Expression Type on the CEEE — Negative Emotion or Threat-Related Emotion?
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: In two pilot studies, we examined the amplification effect of expression intensity for a target face, defined as the face that participants were asked to rate, when it was presented within a group compared with when it was shown alone. We define this amplification effect as the Contextual Emotion Echo Effect (CEEE). Building on these pilot findings, a previous preregistered study further examined whether different expression types influence the CEEE. That study included happiness, pride, anger, and fear, and found that the CEEE emerged for anger and fear, but not for happiness or pride. Because anger and fear are both negative emotions and are also threat-related emotions, those findings do not determine whether the CEEE is driven by negative emotional valence in general or specifically by threat relevance. The present preregistered study addresses this question using a parallel design. Specifically, we replace fear with sadness while keeping the other three expressions unchanged: happiness, pride, and anger. Sadness is a negative emotion but is not typically associated with threat. Therefore, including sadness allows us to test whether the CEEE is triggered by negative emotion more generally or whether it is specifically associated with threat-related emotions.
Authors: Shuai Wang, Reginald B. Adams, Jr.
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7167580810