Abstract
Some studies have found an association between our representations of gender and emotions, where male gender is more associated with negative emotions (Becker et al., 2007; Hess et al., 2009; Wardle et al., 2022). This association is still not well understood with regards to pain expressions, and it could have the consequence that pain is less easily perceived in a female face (Riva et al., 2011). In this study, we measured the association between gender and the pain facial expression, from two different angles. 64 observers (32 men) took part in two tasks where they were asked to categorize the gender of faces displaying either neutral or pain facial expressions (Exp.1) and the presence of pain in male and female faces (Exp.2). Stimuli consisted of 8 facial identities (4 men) taken from the Delaware Pain Database (Mende-Siedlecki et al., 2020). Using a digital morphing software, a continuum of 8 levels of intensity of gender (Exp.1 from 100% female to 100% men face) and emotional state (Exp.2 from 100% neutral to 100% pain) were created. On each trial, one face was presented to participants who had to identify whether the face represented a man or a woman (Exp.1) or a person in physical pain or not (Exp.2). Our results suggest that observers perceive significantly more masculine features in a face expressing pain (Exp.1) and they attribute less pain to a feminine face (Exp.2). These results reinforce the association between gender and emotion. Most importantly, they reveal a symmetry in this association, where the male gender is more easily perceived in a pain expression, and the pain expression is more easily perceived in a male face.