The effect of emotional uncertainty on attentional bias toward neutral infant faces in adults.
Dev Psychobiol
; 64(8): e22335, 2022 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36426785
ABSTRACT
Recent studies have found that adults have stronger attentional bias toward neutral infant faces than emotional (positive or negative) infant faces. This phenomenon may derive from uncertainty over neutral expressions. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 176 participants to examine the relationship between their attentional bias toward neutral infant faces (with neutral adult faces as a comparison baseline) and their level of certainty in their appraisal of emotional valence through eye-tracking indices. The results showed that participants had a longer dwell time and higher fixation counts for infant faces than for adult faces and that a more uncertain appraisal of facial expressions positively predicted attentional bias toward neutral infant faces. Therefore, this study preliminarily demonstrates that emotional uncertainty heightens adults' attentional bias toward infant faces with neutral expressions.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Attentional Bias
Limits:
Adult
/
Humans
/
Infant
Language:
En
Journal:
Dev Psychobiol
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China