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Gender Differences in Facial Reactions to Fear-Relevant Stimuli

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore whether females are specifically more facially reactive than males, or whether females are more emotionally reactive in general, as reflected even by non-facial reactions such as autonomic responding and emotional experience. Forty-eight females and 48 males were exposed to pictures of fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant stimuli while EMG activity was detected from the Corrugator supercilii muscle region. Skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured, and the participants were also required to rate how unpleasant they experienced the stimuli to be. Fear-relevant stimuli evoked a larger corrugator response than fear-irrelevant stimuli, but only for females. Fear-relevant stimuli also elicited larger SCRs and higher ratings of unpleasantness, but these measures were almost identical for females and males. The present results are consistent with the hypothesis that females are more facially reactive than males, but not more reactive in other respects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden

    Monika Thunberg

  2. Uppsala University, Box 1225, S-751 42, Uppsala, Sweden

    Ulf Dimberg

Authors
  1. Monika Thunberg
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  2. Ulf Dimberg
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Thunberg, M., Dimberg, U. Gender Differences in Facial Reactions to Fear-Relevant Stimuli. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 24, 45–51 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006662822224

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