Correlates of facial flushing and pallor in anger-provoking situations

The face usually flushes with rage but can also become pallid during seemingly similar emotional experiences. To investigate this paradox, 200 respondents rated their expected facial colour and the intensity of anger, fear and embarrassment to a range of questionnaire items that involved interpersonal threat or conflict, and also completed questionnaires on blushing propensity, anger expression, facial pallor and fear of injury. Respondents associated flushing with anger and pallor with fear, and reported a propensity for facial flushing, linked with blushing, or a propensity for pallor across a range of threatening and distressing situations. These findings suggest that facial colour during threatening interpersonal interactions may be influenced by fear as well as anger cues which depend, at least in part, on personality attributes.