Shades of Feeling: How Facial Color Variations Influence Emotional and Health Perception

Abstract

This study investigated how color variations in facial expressions influence our perception of emotions and health. Participants viewed color-manipulated (CIE LAB color space) face images depicting seven emotional states and indicated their perceptions of each image's emotion and health. Our results suggest that facial color influences the perception of threat-related emotions such as anger and disgust, as well as health perception. Increasing facial redness intensified the perception of anger, while increasing yellowness and lightness heightened the perception of disgust. Lightness affected perceptions of happiness and sadness, with lighter happy faces appearing happier and lighter sad faces appearing sadder. Additionally, enhancing redness and yellowness on faces led participants to perceive them as healthier. Our findings add to the existing literature and provide important insights into the role of colors in perceiving different emotions and health. These insights may significantly impact social interaction and communication, especially in situations where facial expressions play a critical role.