Modern research shows that emotions are expressed in many ways and at different intensity levels, and it highlights the need to consider individual differences and the complexity of emotions to...Show moreModern research shows that emotions are expressed in many ways and at different intensity levels, and it highlights the need to consider individual differences and the complexity of emotions to fully understand emotion recognition. This study aims to fill this gap by looking at how gender and age affect recognizing both simple and complex emotions using naturalistic (non-posed) expressions. The study involved 25 children aged 9 to 12 years and 54 adults aged 18 to 37 years. These participants watched videos showing naturalistic expressions of happiness, fear, sadness, and disgust and then rated the emotions using sliding scales. No significant gender differences were found in recognizing both simple and complex emotions, which challenges previous studies suggesting women have an advantage. This might be due to the use of naturalistic emotional expression stimuli. Adults outperformed children in both simple and complex emotion recognition, suggesting that emotional recognition improves with age. Happiness was more easily recognized than sadness and disgust, indicating some emotions are easier to identify. While no significant gender differences were found for specific emotions, adults were better than children at recognizing happiness and disgust. These results emphasize the need for more subtle and naturalistic stimuli in emotion research to better reflect real-world experiences. They also highlight the importance of considering individual differences and emotion complexity for a deeper understanding of how different people recognize emotions.Show less
Background: Emotion recognition is essential for social functioning and communication. Research has shown that when adolescents with conduct disorder (CD) also show high callous-unemotional traits ...Show moreBackground: Emotion recognition is essential for social functioning and communication. Research has shown that when adolescents with conduct disorder (CD) also show high callous-unemotional traits (CU+), they are slower in recognizing negative emotions. Moreover, adolescents with CD/CU+ are limited in affective empathy and they are less fearful of punishment. On the other hand, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with a lesser ability to recognize emotions of others in an accurate manner. Besides that, in contrast to CD/CU+, they are impaired in the cognitive aspects of empathy. Aim: This study aims to gain knowledge regarding emotion recognition of adolescents, diagnosed with either ASD or CD/CU+. Specifically, this study focuses on the speed and accuracy negative emotions are recognized with. Additionally, the relationship between diagnostics and emotional processing is researched, and whether cognitive or affective empathy moderate this relationship. The latter aspect has not been studied yet in current literature. Method: The sample consisted of 48 boys between 15 and 19 years (M = 17.2), either boys with ASD (N = 23) or boys with CD/CU+ (N = 25). Using a socio-emotional computer task, fearful and angry faces were presented, and participants were requested to recognize the emotional state. Results: In contrast to earlier findings, results showed that emotion recognition accuracy did not differ between boys with CD/CU+ and boys with ASD. However, there was a difference found in reaction time: boys with CD/CU+ showed a faster reaction time to angry faces than boys with ASD. Finally, empathy did not moderate the relationship between diagnostics and emotion recognition. Conclusion: It can be concluded that boys with CD/CU+ and ASD recognize angry emotions differently. Although further research is recommended, this study emphasizes the importance of adjusting interventions to specific abilities and impairments of the individual, which can increase the efficacy.Show less
