Dot-probe task to investigate gender and age-related attentional biases towards happy and angry faces

How humans attend to emotional stimuli has been extensively researched. Previous studies have found that there are individual differences in attentional preference towards emotional stimuli. For example, some individuals attend more towards positive information, whereas some towards negative stimuli. Individual’s anxiety level has often been linked to cause attentional preference towards threatening stimuli. Less is known about the other possible factors modulating attentional processing of emotional stimuli. Socioemotional Selectivity theory presents that with age adult start to prefer activities and information that is meaningful and positive and avoid things that are negative. The theory also implies that younger people are often more drawn to negative aspects in their life. Thus, this study aimed to investigate, whether this age-related preference towards emotional stimuli is also seen in attentional functions. Moreover, some preliminary studies have found there to be gender...Show moreHow humans attend to emotional stimuli has been extensively researched. Previous studies have found that there are individual differences in attentional preference towards emotional stimuli. For example, some individuals attend more towards positive information, whereas some towards negative stimuli. Individual’s anxiety level has often been linked to cause attentional preference towards threatening stimuli. Less is known about the other possible factors modulating attentional processing of emotional stimuli. Socioemotional Selectivity theory presents that with age adult start to prefer activities and information that is meaningful and positive and avoid things that are negative. The theory also implies that younger people are often more drawn to negative aspects in their life. Thus, this study aimed to investigate, whether this age-related preference towards emotional stimuli is also seen in attentional functions. Moreover, some preliminary studies have found there to be gender differences in how humans attend to emotional stimuli. Thus, the study aimed to bring more clarity to the possible gender-related attentional preference towards emotions. To test this the participants (N = 102, males = 29, women = 73) completed a dot-probe task. The dot-probe task allows to calculate how much attention individual showed on certain type of facial expressions. The study found that age was non-significant predictor of attentional processes toward angry and happy faces. Moreover, no gender differences were found on attentional bias towards happy faces, but small directional evidence for women allocating more attention to angry faces than men. These findings imply that age and gender are not strong predictors for attentional preferences towards emotions.Show less

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Dot-probe task to investigate gender and age-related attentional biases towards happy and angry faces