The differential effects of facial expressions on behavior: Conscious and automatic processing

Emotional information helps human beings produce corresponding behavioral responses, namely, approach and avoidance. However, it remains unclear whether emotion can activate approach and avoidance responses at both conscious and automatic processing levels. We conducted two experiments to compare the impact of happy, sad, and fearful faces on behavior (assessed using a joystick task) and found that happiness was associated with approach and fear with avoidance, regardless of whether emotional expressions were evaluated consciously or processed automatically (assessed via a gender judgment task). However, sad faces elicited approach responses at the conscious processing level, but no significant tendency emerged when conscious evaluation was reduced. Thus, facial emotional expressions can trigger approach–avoidance tendencies at both conscious and automatic processing levels. However, the specific patterns of these effects vary, suggesting that the underlying mechanisms may operate differently. Implications of the findings are discussed.