Attention to Angry and Happy Facial Expressions in Infancy

Infants are exposed daily to a wide range of emotional expressions; however, it is not yet well understood how they allocate their attention to positive and negative emotions. Previous research has shown a robust negativity bias toward fearful compared to happy and neutral facial expressions, but evidence for attentional responses to angry faces remains inconsistent (Vaish et al., 2008; Edelstein & Gillath, 2007; Leppänen et al., 2018). The present study investigates whether infants show an attentional preference for angry versus happy expressions and whether this preference varies with age. We measured infants’ attention to dynamic angry and happy faces in a computer-based eye-tracking task among 220 infants aged 5–7, 11–13, and 17–19 months. Dwell times were compared using a two-way mixed ANOVA with emotion (happy, angry) as a within-subject factor and age group as a between-subjects factor. Results revealed a significant main effect of emotion: infants looked longer at happy than...Show moreInfants are exposed daily to a wide range of emotional expressions; however, it is not yet well understood how they allocate their attention to positive and negative emotions. Previous research has shown a robust negativity bias toward fearful compared to happy and neutral facial expressions, but evidence for attentional responses to angry faces remains inconsistent (Vaish et al., 2008; Edelstein & Gillath, 2007; Leppänen et al., 2018). The present study investigates whether infants show an attentional preference for angry versus happy expressions and whether this preference varies with age. We measured infants’ attention to dynamic angry and happy faces in a computer-based eye-tracking task among 220 infants aged 5–7, 11–13, and 17–19 months. Dwell times were compared using a two-way mixed ANOVA with emotion (happy, angry) as a within-subject factor and age group as a between-subjects factor. Results revealed a significant main effect of emotion: infants looked longer at happy than at angry faces across all age groups, indicating a consistent preference for happy expressions. Although fixation durations increased with age, there was no significant interaction between emotion and age, suggesting that this preference remained stable across infancy. These findings contrast with the well-documented fear-related negativity bias but extend existing research by showing that this bias does not generalize to anger. Instead, the current findings are consistent with evidence for an early positivity bias, suggesting that angry faces may elicit avoidance rather than attentional engagement (Palama et al., 2018; Juvrud et al., 2021). Future research should include a broader range of emotions, multiple measures of attention, and longitudinal designs to clarify emotional attention in early life.Show less

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Attention to Angry and Happy Facial Expressions in Infancy