Understanding of real and apparent emotions by Australian Children

This study investigates Australian children's understanding of the display rules that govern the manifestation of facial expressions. In compliance with display rules, the facial expressions displayed (i.e., apparent emotion) may be incongruent with the emotion experienced (i.e., real emotion). One hundred and seventy-six Caucasian children living in Australia (80 four-year-olds and 96 six-year-olds) were presented with hypothetical stories in which display rules would govern whether or not apparent emotion should match the real emotion. Children were then asked to identify the real and apparent emotion corresponding to the story from an array of facial expressions of emotion. Results indicated that children gave non-regulated responses to stories that allowed the genuine expression of real emotion, and to stories that required emotional dissemblance, indicating no attempt to hide the expression of real emotion. No gender difference was found in this sample. It seems likely that cognitive factors such as the development of a theory of mind, and socialisation factors such as exposure to and the acquisition of emotional scripts could account for the results