Are two threats worse than one? The effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning

Facial cues of racial outgroup or anger mediate fear learning that is resistant to extinction. Whether this resistance is potentiated if fear is conditioned to angry, other race faces has not been established. Two groups of Caucasian participants were conditioned with two happy and two angry face co...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bramwell, S., Mallan, K., Lipp, Ottmar
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc. 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/38364
_version_ 1848755300889264128
author Bramwell, S.
Mallan, K.
Lipp, Ottmar
author_facet Bramwell, S.
Mallan, K.
Lipp, Ottmar
author_sort Bramwell, S.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Facial cues of racial outgroup or anger mediate fear learning that is resistant to extinction. Whether this resistance is potentiated if fear is conditioned to angry, other race faces has not been established. Two groups of Caucasian participants were conditioned with two happy and two angry face conditional stimuli (CSs). During acquisition, one happy and one angry face were paired with an aversive unconditional stimulus whereas the second happy and angry faces were presented alone. CS face race (Caucasian, African American) was varied between groups. During habituation, electrodermal responses were larger to angry faces regardless of race and declined less to other race faces. Extinction was immediate for Caucasian happy faces, delayed for angry faces regardless of race, and slowest for happy racial outgroup faces. Combining the facial cues of other race and anger does not enhance resistance to extinction of fear.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T08:54:07Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-38364
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:54:07Z
publishDate 2014
publisher Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-383642019-02-19T05:35:12Z Are two threats worse than one? The effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning Bramwell, S. Mallan, K. Lipp, Ottmar Fear relevance Facial expressions Fear learning Preparedness Race Electrodermal responses Facial cues of racial outgroup or anger mediate fear learning that is resistant to extinction. Whether this resistance is potentiated if fear is conditioned to angry, other race faces has not been established. Two groups of Caucasian participants were conditioned with two happy and two angry face conditional stimuli (CSs). During acquisition, one happy and one angry face were paired with an aversive unconditional stimulus whereas the second happy and angry faces were presented alone. CS face race (Caucasian, African American) was varied between groups. During habituation, electrodermal responses were larger to angry faces regardless of race and declined less to other race faces. Extinction was immediate for Caucasian happy faces, delayed for angry faces regardless of race, and slowest for happy racial outgroup faces. Combining the facial cues of other race and anger does not enhance resistance to extinction of fear. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/38364 10.1111/psyp.12155 Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc. fulltext
spellingShingle Fear relevance
Facial expressions
Fear learning
Preparedness
Race
Electrodermal responses
Bramwell, S.
Mallan, K.
Lipp, Ottmar
Are two threats worse than one? The effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning
title Are two threats worse than one? The effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning
title_full Are two threats worse than one? The effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning
title_fullStr Are two threats worse than one? The effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning
title_full_unstemmed Are two threats worse than one? The effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning
title_short Are two threats worse than one? The effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning
title_sort are two threats worse than one? the effects of face race and emotional expression on fear conditioning
topic Fear relevance
Facial expressions
Fear learning
Preparedness
Race
Electrodermal responses
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/38364