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Asymmetry of Facial Expressions of Emotion

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Understanding Facial Expressions in Communication

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to review the various theories of facial emotion lateralization and to provide an examination of the research conducted to date that addresses these theories, drawing upon evidence primarily from behavioral and lesion studies. The chapter focuses on human research, but studies from primates are also considered. The lateralization of facial emotion is discussed in terms of demographic factors (e.g., age and gender), valence (i.e., positive or negative emotions), and elicitation procedure (i.e., posed vs. spontaneous). The chapter evaluates theories pertaining to hemispheric specialization (e.g., the valence hypothesis) and location-specific differences (e.g., upper vs. lower face) during facial emotional expression. Finally, the chapter concludes with suggestions about directions for future research.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported, in part, by Professional Staff Congress—CUNY Research Award nos. 64429-0042, 65431-0043, and 67383-0045 to Queens College.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY), SB-E318, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY, 11367, USA

    Elizabeth M. Murray, William H. Krause, Remington J. Stafford, Amanda D. Bono, Erica P. Meltzer & Joan C. Borod

  2. Psychology Department, The Graduate Center of CUNY, New York, NY, USA

    Elizabeth M. Murray, William H. Krause, Amanda D. Bono, Erica P. Meltzer & Joan C. Borod

  3. Neurology Department, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Joan C. Borod

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  1. Elizabeth M. Murray
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Correspondence to Joan C. Borod .

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  1. Defence Institute of Psychological Research, Defence Research and Development Organization, New Delhi, India

    Manas K. Mandal

  2. Defence Institute of Psychological Research, Defence Research and Development Organization, New Delhi, India

    Avinash Awasthi

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Murray, E.M., Krause, W.H., Stafford, R.J., Bono, A.D., Meltzer, E.P., Borod, J.C. (2015). Asymmetry of Facial Expressions of Emotion. In: Mandal, M., Awasthi, A. (eds) Understanding Facial Expressions in Communication. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1934-7_5

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