Att kunna ge uttryck för emotioner och förstå andra individers emotionella signaler kan vara skillnaden mellan liv och död eller mellan social gemenskap och utanförskap. Det finns inom forskningen spridda resultat om hur emotioner upplevs i män och kvinnors ansikten samt motstridigheter i forskningen om vilka emotioner som har företrädesrätt, även kallad superiority effect. Viss forskning visar att arga ansikten har en dominerande företrädesrätt något som kan kopplas till överlevnadsmekanismen. Andra studier visar motsatsen, att glada ansikten går före arga ansikten. Två syften skapades för studien, det första var att undersöka om det fanns någon skillnad i hur män och kvinnors glada respektive arga ansikten upplevs. Det andra syftet var att undersöka om det fanns en superiority effect bland arga och glada ansikten. I undersökningen deltog 23 universitetsstudenter som fick i uppgift att skatta arga, glada och neutrala ansikten på VAS-skalor i ilska, sorg, vänlighet och glädje. Analyser på insamlad data gjordes med beroende ANOVA-test. Resultaten visade att mäns arga ansikten upplevdes som argare än kvinnors arga ansikten samt att kvinnors ansikten upplevdes som vänligare i jämförelse med männens ansikten. Diskussionen förklarade resultaten i förhållande till forskning om genusskillnader, män och kvinnors ansiktsformer samt hur glädje och ilska relateras till män och kvinnor. En förklaring till resultaten kan vara att män oftare förknippas med negativa egenskaper som ilska och hot samt att kvinnor förknippas med omhändertagande och vänlighet. Forskning behöver göras i ett bredare perspektiv där stereotyper, status och teorier om drifters eventuella samband undersöks närmare.

Faces provide cues for judgments regarding the emotional state of individuals. Using signal-detection methodology and a standardized stimulus set, the overall aim of the present dissertation was to investigate the detection of emotional facial expressions (i.e., angry and happy faces) with neutral expressions as the nontarget stimuli. Study I showed a happy-superiority effect and a bias towards reporting happiness in female faces. As work progressed, questions arose regarding whether the emotional stimuli were equal with regard to perceived strength of emotion, and whether the neutral faces were perceived as neutral. To further investigate the effect of stimulus quality on the obtained findings, Study II was designed such that the facial stimuli were rated on scales of happy-sad, angry-friendly, and emotionality. Results showed that ‘neutral’ facial expressions were not rated as neutral, and that there was a greater perceived distance between happy and neutral faces than between angry and neutral faces. These results were used to adjust the detectability measures to compensate for the varying distances of the angry and happy stimuli from the neutral stimuli in the emotional space. The happy-superiority effect was weakened, while an angry-female disadvantage remained. However, as these results were based upon different participant groups for detection and emotional rating, Study III was designed to investigate whether the results from Studies I and II could be replicated in a design where the same participants performed both tasks. Again, the results showed the non-neutrality of ‘neutral’ expressions and that happiness was more easily detected than anger, as shown in general emotion as well as specific emotion detection. Taken together, the overall results of the present dissertation demonstrate a happy-superiority effect that was greater for female than male faces, that angry-female faces were the most difficult to detect, and a bias to report female faces as happy. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: In press. Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.