Self-structure and emotional response categorization: Who judges a face by its emotional cover?

Examines individual differences in the use of affective qualities of stimuli as a basis for categorization. We hypothesized that individuals with evaluatively compartmentalized self-structures would be more likely than those with integrative self-structures to respond to the affective qualities of face stimuli. In an emotional response categorization task, participants rated the similarity of face pairs that varied in emotional expression. Individuals with positively integrative self-concepts perceived faces with different emotional expressions to be relatively similar, suggesting that these judgments rely on facial features other than emotional expression. For face pairs that shared the same emotional expression, naturally-occurring mood (but not self-structure) was associated with greater perceived similarity, suggesting that effects of self-structure are restricted to contexts in which emotionality is subtle.

► Examines categorization of emotional faces in evaluative self-organization. ► Measured similarity ratings for face pairs displaying same and different emotions. ► Positive integration of self was associated with low reliance on emotional expression. ► Natural positive mood was associated with high reliance on emotional expression. ► Self positivity (negativity) associated with high ratings for same (different) faces.