Facial expressions of emotion: Are angry faces detected more efficiently?

The rapid detection of facial expressions of anger or threat has obvious ad aptive value. In this study, we examined the efficiency of facial processin g by means of a visual search task. Participants searched displays of schem atic Faces and were required to determine whether the faces displayed were all the same or whether one was different. Four main results were found: (1 ) When displays contained the same faces, people were slower in detecting t he absence of a discrepant face when the faces displayed angry (or sad/angr y) rather than happy expressions. (2) When displays contained a discrepant face people were faster in detecting this when the discrepant face displaye d an angry rather than a happy expression. (3) Neither of these patterns fo r same and different displays was apparent when face displays were inverted , or when just the mouth was presented in isolation. (4) The search slopes for angry targets were significantly lower than for happy targets. These re sults suggest that detection of angry facial expressions is fast and effici ent, although does not "pop-out" in the traditional sense.