Abstract
Whether the Anger Superiority Effect prevails over the Happiness Superiority Effect has been the subject of much discussion. Problems with the research design and methodology used in this type of research could account for differences in the results. This face-in-the-crowd study attempted a more ecologically valid design using nine multiplied identities showing nine different emotions expressions in a randomized 3 × 3 grid. The aim of this research was to explore the duration of fixation on nine emotional faces in a crowd showing all seven primary emotion plus embarrassment, compared to the neutral face expression. The convenience sample consisted of 136 participants with no mental health diagnosis (M = 22.5; SD = 8.54). Happiness had the longest fixation duration by far, providing clear support for the happiness superiority effect. In addition, participants fixated significantly more often on anger, disgust, surprise, and fear, and significantly less often on embarrassment, compared to the neutral expression. Fixation on contempt and sadness did not differ significantly from fixating on the neutral expression. The research supported the happiness superiority effect using more realistic grids consisting of nine different people (women and men) exhibiting nine different emotions with random rotation of grid positions.
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In order to comply with the ethics approvals of the study protocols, data cannot be made accessible through a public repository. However, data are available upon request for researchers who consent to adhering to the ethical regulations for confidential data.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Lenka Lysá, Silvia Pukanová, Karolína Šandalová, Dominika Šoltésová, Silvia Štellerová and Alexandra Vrábelová for the help with data gathering.
Funding
This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the Contract no. PP-COVID-20-0074. Writing this work was supported by the Vedecká grantová agentúra VEGA under Grant VEGA 1/0075/19 and VEGA 1/0725/19.
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JH and BS designed research project. BS collected data. RM processed data. MK performed the statistical analysis. JH and MK wrote the first draft of the article, all authors interpreted the results, revised the manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.
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Halamová, J., Strnádelová, B., Kanovský, M. et al. Anger or happiness superiority effect: A face in the crowd study involving nine emotions expressed by nine people. Curr Psychol 42, 15381–15387 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02762-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02762-3