Implicit perception of affective information

Two experiments were conducted to demonstrate the implicit perception of nonverbal affective information. In the first experiment, subjects saw slides of a novel cartoon character paired with slides of faces expressing either joy or disgust over a series of learning trials. Face slides were presented immediately prior to the cartoon slides and were rendered undetectable in a metacontrast procedure. In a speeded discrimination task, subjects identified previously seen cartoon characters faster as such if those stimuli were paired with undetected slides of faces that expressed the same (compared to different) emotion as that expressed by faces paired with the cartoons during learning. In a second experiment, subjects formed an impression of a cartoon character that was paired with undetected slides of faces expressing joy, disgust, or a neutral expression. Subjects in the disgust condition endorsed more negative traits as descriptive of the cartoon and saw the cartoon as more similar to the typical member of negative social categories than did subjects in the joy condition. Taken together these findings provide some evidence for the implicit perception of nonverbal affective information. The possible role of undetected affective information in social perception is discussed.