Valence-congruent priming during sequential face perception across identity and exposure manipulations.

Abstract

Emotional evaluations of faces are strongly influenced by preceding perceptual and affective context. Previous research has suggested that sequential emotional evaluations may produce either assimilation or contrast effects depending on factors such as perceptual similarity and stimulus exposure duration. The present study examined how preceding emotional faces influence evaluations of neutral faces as a function of identity similarity and presentation duration. Fifty undergraduate participants evaluated neutral target faces that were preceded by either happy or fearful facial primes depicting either the same person as the neutral target or a different person. Prime-target pairs were presented under both short (36 ms) and long (400 ms) exposure conditions. Valence ratings were analyzed using repeated-measures analyses of variance. Across all conditions, neutral faces were rated more positively following happy primes than fearful primes, revealing a robust valence-congruent priming pattern. The Happy-Fearful difference did not significantly interact with presentation duration and was larger in the different-identity condition. Reaction times differed significantly as a function of presentation duration, whereas the main effect of Prime Emotion did not reach significance. The findings demonstrate a reliable valence-congruent influence of preceding emotional faces on subsequent neutral-face evaluations under conditions involving extended inter-stimulus intervals and the absence of explicit prime evaluation.