On Wonderful Women and Seeing Smiles: Social Categorization Moderates the Happy Face Response Latency Advantage

The current studies investigate how social categorization may influence the perception of facial expressions. Across two experiments, we find that the speed and accuracy of facial expression categorization is modulated by the targets' social category. Specifically, we test the extent to which the Happy Face Advantage in expression categorization (the tendency for happy expressions to be accurately categorized more quickly than negative expressions) is moderated by target sex. Both experiments indicate that target sex moderates categorization speed and accuracy, such that happy faces are categorized more quickly and accurately on female than on male target faces. Importantly, Experiment 2 pits an evaluative explanation against a stereotyping explanation for this effect, and finds that the effects are better explained by evaluation than by stereotyping. Thus, the results suggest that the sex of a target may provide an evaluative context in which facial expressions are perceived, yielding further evidence that social categorization and the perception of facial affect are intertwined.