Evolutionary theories have suggested that a female superiority in the recognition of facial emotion may be an adaptation that arises from women’s greater responsibility and investment in child-rearing and infant care. In a previous study, we showed a female superiority on a set of computer-administered emotion recognition tasks that was most prominent for the discrimination of negatively as opposed to positively valenced facial expressions (e.g., fear), providing empirical support for the “fitness threat” hypothesis. In the present study, we further investigated sex differences in a new sample of 95 healthy men and women of reproductive age ( M age = 22.09 years), using images of both children’s and adult’s faces as stimuli to evaluate the speed and accuracy of emotion recognition. A female superiority in accuracy, which was more pronounced for negative than positive expressions, was found for adult face stimuli, replicating our previous findings. The sex difference was shown to extend robustly to infant and toddler faces, which represent a more ecologically valid test of the fitness threat hypothesis. Direct parenting experience, but not other forms of learned experience involving young children, was also found to be associated with the accuracy of emotion discrimination. Implications of this association are discussed.

中文翻译：

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性别差异在儿童情绪表达的识别中：对健身威胁假说的检验

进化论认为，女性在面部表情识别方面的优越性可能是由于女性承担更大的责任以及对抚养子女和婴儿照料的投入而产生的适应。在先前的研究中，我们展示了女性在一系列计算机执行的情绪识别任务上的优越性，这些任务最主要是对否定正面表情（例如，恐惧）的负面表情的歧视，从而为“健康威胁”提供实证支持。 “ 假设。在本研究中，我们使用儿童和成人面孔的图像作为刺激来评估情绪识别的速度和准确性，从而进一步研究了95个健康年龄（M年龄= 22.09岁）的健康男性和女性的新样本中的性别差异。 。女性在准确性上的优势，在成年面部刺激中发现，与阴性表达相比，阴性表达更为明显。研究表明，性别差异可以牢固地扩展到婴儿和学步儿童的面部，这代表了对健康威胁假说的更生态有效的检验。还发现直接养育子女的经验，而不是涉及幼儿的其他形式的学习经验，与情感歧视的准确性有关。讨论了这种关联的含义。但是也没有发现涉及幼儿的其他形式的学习经验与情感歧视的准确性有关。讨论了这种关联的含义。但是也没有发现涉及幼儿的其他形式的学习经验与情感歧视的准确性有关。讨论了这种关联的含义。