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. 2018 Jun 21:9:1012.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01012. eCollection 2018.

Effects of Face and Background Color on Facial Expression Perception

Tetsuto Minami  1 , Kae Nakajima  2   3 , Shigeki Nakauchi  2
Affiliations

Effects of Face and Background Color on Facial Expression Perception

Tetsuto Minami et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Detecting others' emotional states from their faces is an essential component of successful social interaction. However, the ability to perceive emotional expressions is reported to be modulated by a number of factors. We have previously found that facial color modulates the judgment of facial expression, while another study has shown that background color plays a modulatory role. Therefore, in this study, we directly compared the effects of face and background color on facial expression judgment within a single experiment. Fear-to-anger morphed faces were presented in face and background color conditions. Our results showed that judgments of facial expressions was influenced by both face and background color. However, facial color effects were significantly greater than background color effects, although the color saturation of faces was lower compared to background colors. These results suggest that facial color is intimately related to the judgment of facial expression, over and above the influence of simple color.

Keywords: angry faces; facial color; facial expression recognition; fearful faces; point of subjective equality; psychometric function; reaction times.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Stimuli and procedure: (A) facial color (FC) and background color (BC) conditions. (1) A reddish-colored face with a gray background; (2) a bluish-colored face with a gray background; (3) a neutral-colored face with a red background; (4) a neutral-colored face with a blue background; and (5) a neutral-colored face with a gray background. (B) Each stimulus on CIELab color space. (C) Experimental paradigm. Each trial began with a fixation for 500 ms, followed by a colored background (red, blue, or gray) for 1,500 ms, and then an expression morphed face was presented until participants responded.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Psychometric function and color effect index. (A) The relation between morph level (fear-neural-anger) and response (percentage of anger response) to each stimulus. To compare effects on the facial expression perception, the PSE (Point of subjective equality at 50% performance) was identified by finding the morph increment for each participant. (B) Color Effect Index (CEI) of two colors in each condition. CEIs were calculated from PSE differences from the control condition.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Reaction times to each color and expression (morph level 100%). (A) FC and (B) BC conditions.
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