The Face in the Crowd

The media tells us that a beautiful face stands out in any crowd. That is why they were able to sell millions and millions of beauty products for a lot of women aching to catch a guy’s attention. However, what they offer are long term solutions wherein you have to wait for months to see that stunning result. That means, having to wait for long months just to get your crush to notice you. But worry no more because a quick solution lies in facial expressions. With just a twist of your lips, eyes and cheeks, you will get that eye-catching look in seconds.

According to neuropsychological and cognitive studies, facial expressions are a special kind of stimulus for perception because they give out information with adaptive function for social interaction. They can also give insights about the motivational state and intentions of others which in turn, guides our expectations and actions towards people (Calvo, 2008). Contrary to popular belief that happy expressions are more noticeable, a study entitled The Face in the Crowd Effect: Anger Superiority When Using Real Faces and Multiple Identities (Pinkham, et. al, 2010) showed that angry expressions are more easily and accurately recognized in a crowd of other faces. This phenomenon is termed as the “Face in the Crowd Effect (FICE)” or the “Anger- Superiority Effect” which poses evolutionary advantage in quickly locating and recognizing possible threats in the environment. Specific neural modules such as the Amygdala is said to be involved as it specializes in processing faces and threats.

The FICE was tested through a visual search paradigm like when searching for a particular person in a crowd of people as in Where’s Wally? (Goldstein, 2010). Instead of using schematic stimuli, validated veridical photos and heterogeneous faces were used to provide a more realistic crowd. 26 undergraduate students from the University of Pennsylvania participated in the study. 54 matrices containing 9 faces with the same expression (e.g. all happy, all sad, all neutral) and 108 matrices containing 8 faces with the same expression and 1 target face differing in expression were shown in a random order. The participants responded whether all faces showed the same expression or not. Their responses and their reaction times were recorded and analyzed.

Though the study used a relatively small sample, results were consistent with studies using graphic stimuli (not real faces). Angry faces were found more quickly and accurately across a crowd of other faces compared with happy faces. This tells us that processing threatening stimuli have a strong advantage relative to nonthreatening stimuli in the environment.

Also, if you really want to get someone to notice you especially when you are in a place with a lot of people, try sporting that angry expression. A word of caution though, reactions of the people who would see may be different from what you expected. Or, if you want to stand-out in your friend’s wacky picture, wrinkle that nose and expose your teeth for that best angry face.

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Calvo, M. G., Nummenmaa, L., & Avero, P. (2008). Visual Search of Emotional Faces : Eye-Movement Assessment of Component Processes. Experimental Psychology, 55, 6, 359-370. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Goldstein, E. B. (2010). Sensation and perception (8^th ed.). California, USA: Wadsworth.

Pinkham, A. E., Griffin, M., Baron, R., Sasson, N. J., Gur, R. C. (2010). The Face in the Crowd Effect: Anger Superiority When Using Real Faces and Multiple Identities. Emotion, 10, 1, 141-146. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.