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Rasset P, Mange J, Montalan B, Stutterheim SE. Towards a better understanding of the social stigma of facial difference. Body Image 2022; 43:450-462. [PMID: 36345083 DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.10.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2021] [Revised: 10/10/2022] [Accepted: 10/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Facial difference (FD) is not only an individual experience; it is inherently social, reflecting interactions between social norms and individual attitudes. Often FD is stigmatized. In this paper, we employ a widely used stigma framework, namely the social stigma framework put forth by Pryor and Reeder (2011), to unpack the stigma of FD. This framework posits that there are four forms of stigma: public stigma, self-stigma, stigma by association, and structural stigma. We first discuss the social and psychological literature on FD as it pertains to these various forms of stigma. We then describe coping approaches for FD stigma. Lastly, we delineate evidence-based methods for addressing the various forms of FD stigma, such that future efforts can more effectively tackle the stigma of facial difference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pauline Rasset
- Laboratoire de Psychologie de Caen Normandie (LPCN EA 7452), Université de Caen Normandie, France.
| | - Jessica Mange
- Laboratoire de Psychologie de Caen Normandie (LPCN EA 7452), Université de Caen Normandie, France
| | - Benoît Montalan
- Centre de Recherche sur les Fonctionnements et Dysfonctionnements Psychologiques (CRFDP EA 7475), Université de Rouen Normandie, France
| | - Sarah E Stutterheim
- Department of Health Promotion, Care and Public Health Research Institute, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
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2
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Look me in the eyes! A pre-registered eye-tracking study investigating visual attention and affective reactions to faces with a visible difference. Body Image 2022; 40:67-77. [PMID: 34864605 DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 10/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
This research aims to determine how disfigurement alters visual attention paid to faces and to examine whether such a potential modified pattern of visual attention to faces with visible difference was associated, in turn, with perceiver's stigmatizing affective reactions. A pilot study (N = 38) and a pre-registered experimental eye-tracking study (N = 89) were conducted. First, the visual explorations of faces with and without disfigurement were compared. The association of these visual explorations with affective reactions were investigated next. Findings suggest that disfigurement impacts visual attention toward faces; attention is not merely attracted to the disfigured area but it is also diverted particularly from the eye area. Disfigurement also eases disgust-related, surprise-related, anxiety-related, and, to a lesser extent, hostility-related affective states. Exploratory interaction effects between attention to the eyes and to the disfigured part of the face revealed a hybrid effect on disgust-related affect and an increase in surprise-related affect when participants fixated more upon the disfigured area and fixated less upon the eyes. Thus, perceiver's attention is captured by disfigurement and also diverted from face internal features which seems to play a role in the affective reactions elicited.
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Wang Z, Goerlich KS, Xu P, Luo Y, Aleman A. Perceptive and Affective Impairments In Emotive Eye-Region Processing in Alexithymia. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:912-922. [PMID: 35277722 PMCID: PMC9527467 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2021] [Revised: 01/13/2022] [Accepted: 02/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Alexithymia is characterized by impairments in emotion processing, frequently linked to facial expressions of emotion. The eye-region conveys information necessary for emotion processing. It has been demonstrated that alexithymia is associated with reduced attention to the eyes, but little is known regarding the cognitive and electrophysiological mechanisms underlying emotive eye-region processing in alexithymia. Here, we recorded behavioral and electrophysiological responses of individuals with alexithymia (ALEX; n = 25) and individuals without alexithymia (NonALEX; n = 23) while they viewed intact and eyeless faces with angry and sad expressions during a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation task. Results showed different eye-region focuses and differentiating N1 responses between intact and eyeless faces to anger and sadness in NonALEX, but not in ALEX, suggesting deficient perceptual processing of the eye-region in alexithymia. Reduced eye-region focus and smaller differences in frontal alpha asymmetry in response to sadness between intact and eyeless faces were observed in ALEX than NonALEX, indicative of impaired affective processing of the eye-region in alexithymia. These findings highlight perceptual and affective abnormalities of emotive eye-region processing in alexithymia. Our results contribute to understanding the neuropsychopathology of alexithymia and alexithymia-related disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhihao Wang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, Section Cognitive Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Katharina S Goerlich
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, Section Cognitive Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Pengfei Xu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (BNU), Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
- Center for Neuroimaging, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen 518106, China
| | - Yuejia Luo
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
- College of Teacher Education, Qilu Normal University, Jinan 250200, China
- The Research Center of Brain Science and Visual Cognition, Medical School, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650031, China
| | - André Aleman
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Neuroscience, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells & Systems, Section Cognitive Neuroscience, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Boutsen L, Pearson NA, Jüttner M. Do facially disfiguring features influence attention and perception of faces? Evidence from an antisaccade task. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2021; 75:830-840. [PMID: 34388951 PMCID: PMC8958561 DOI: 10.1177/17470218211041621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Facial disfigurements can influence how observers attend to and interact with the person, leading to disease-avoidance behaviour and emotions (disgust, threat, fear for contagion). However, it is unclear whether this behaviour is reflected in the effect of the facial stigma on attention and perceptual encoding of facial information. We addressed this question by measuring, in a mixed antisaccade task, observers' speed and accuracy of orienting of visual attention towards or away from peripherally presented upright and inverted unfamiliar faces that had either a realistic looking disease-signalling feature (a skin discolouration), a non-disease-signalling control feature, or no added feature. The presence of a disfiguring or control feature did not influence the orienting of attention (in terms of saccadic latency) towards upright faces, suggesting that avoidance responses towards facial stigma do not occur during covert attention. However, disfiguring and control features significantly reduced the effect of face inversion on saccadic latency, thus suggesting an impact on the holistic processing of facial information. The implications of these findings for the encoding and appraisal of facial disfigurements are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luc Boutsen
- School of Psychology, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
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