Emotional Perception and Emotional Information Processing of Facial Expression Recognition: psychological origins of social judgment

Abstract

In this paper, we intend to advocate the thesis that social judgments begin with the emotional perception and the emotional information processing of facial expression recognition. For this purpose, we will review models which discuss  (i)  the  mechanisms  by  which  the  facial  expressions  are  encoded  to convey information and be perceived by others, (ii) the perceptive mechanisms of decoding and categorization of facial expressions, (iii) the mechanisms by which the recognition of facial expressions generate emotional responses and behavioral  adjustments,  and,  finally,  (iv)  the  efficiency  of  our  perceptual systems in the decoding of these processes. Throughout this discussion, our intention is (i) to explain in what sense our emotional perception of facial expressions is one of the major evolutionary mechanisms of life regulation and that (ii) emotional information processing is a powerful tool to ensure survival and sustain reasonable social interactions.