Abstract :
We conducted two studies (Ns=52 and 60) to test
the notion that the incentive salience of facial expressions of
emotion (FEE) is a joint function of perceivers’ implicit
needs for power and affiliation and the FEE’s meaning as
a dominance or affiliation signal. We used a variant of the
dot-probe task (Mogg & Bradley, 1999a) to measure attentional
orienting. Joy, anger, surprise, and neutral FEEs were
presented for 12, 116, and 231 ms with backward masking.
Implicit motiveswere assessedwith a Picture Story Exercise.
We found that power-motivated individuals orient their attention
towards faces signaling low dominance, but away from
faces that signal high dominance, and (b) that affiliationmotivated
individuals show vigilance for faces signaling low
affiliation (rejection) and, to a lesser extent, orient attention
towards faces signaling high affiliation (acceptance).
