Abstract
It has been proposed that women are better than men in the processing of faces and facial expressions (Herlitz & Lovén, 2013; Thompson & Voyer, 2014). They have also been shown to be more sensitive to variations in pain expressions (Mass & Mercer 2004). Theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain this feminine advantage (Brody, 1985; Keogh, 2014), but few have explored their perceptual basis (Hall et al., 2010; Vassalo et al., 2009). The objective of this experiment was to compare the visual information used by men and women to discriminate between different intensities of pain facial expressions. Seventy-six participants (38 men) were tested using the Bubbles method (Gosselin & Schyns, 2001), which randomly sampled facial features to infer what visual information is associated with correct discrimination of pain expressions. Results support the women's advantage and show that women (M=44.49 bubbles, SD=20.82) need less visual information than men (M=56.07, SD=23.16) to successfully complete the task. No qualitative difference in the regions used by men and women was found : both were using the eyes and upper nose region. However, women relied on larger regions of the face (clusters; M=2262.0, SD=1337.4) than men (M=1350.0, SD=1815.20) and this strategy seemed to completely mediate their discrimination advantage (β=-6.06, 95% CI [-12.09 -1.12] p=0.01). This reliance on larger clusters could either indicate 1) that women integrate simultaneously and more efficiently information coming from different areas of the face or 2) that they are more flexible in the utilization of the information present in these clusters. Women would then opt for a more holistic or flexible processing of the facial information, while men would rely on a specific yet rigid integration strategy. Implications will be discussed.