Interaction effects of perceived gaze direction and dynamic facial expression: Evidence for appraisal theories of emotion

Abstract Appraisal theorists suggest that the face expresses cognitive processes involved both in the orienting of attention (primarily gaze direction) and in the evaluation of emotion-eliciting events. Contrary to the assumption of direct emotion recognition by basic emotions theorists, this implies an interaction effect between "perceived gaze direction" and "perceived facial expression" in inferring emotion from the face. These two theoretical perspectives were comparatively tested by requesting participants to decode dynamic synthetic facial expressions of emotion presented with either an averted or a direct gaze. Confirming the interaction predicted by appraisal theories, the perceived specificity and intensity of fear and anger depended on gaze direction (direct gaze for anger and averted gaze for fear). Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank Patrik Vuilleumier and Tanja Bänziger for fruitful discussions. We also thank the Associate Editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (105311-108187/1 to DS and Patrik Vuilleumier).