The Face of Emotion

This research compared the two models of emotional lateralisation: the right hemisphere hypothesis and the valence hypothesis to ascertain whether the left cheek bias presents consistently for emotions of different valences. By using the left cheek bias paradigm we were able to determine which model was most supported. We assessed people’s perceptions of the five core emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, fear) expressed by left cheek and right cheek poses and aimed to determine whether perceptions of the emotions were influenced by the cheek shown (left or right cheek poses). It was hypothesised that if the valence hypothesis is correct, there would be higher ratings of positive emotions for right cheek poses and higher ratings of negative emotions for left cheek poses. If the right hemisphere hypothesis is correct, all ratings would be higher for left cheek poses across all emotional valences. We recruited 135 participants to complete an online survey depicting left and right cheek images. We found that the left cheek bias presents consistently for positive and negative emotions and thus, offered support for the right hemisphere hypothesis rather than the valence hypothesis.