"Sentio ergo est": Unmasking the psychological realities of emotional misperception.
Perception January 1, 2025 Myron Tsikandilakis, Persefoni Bali, Alexander Karlis et al. 4 citations
When people mistakenly report seeing a briefly presented, backward-masked emotional face that was not actually shown, these false-positive responses are linked to heightened physiological arousal before and after the trial, high confidence in the erroneous perception, and ratings of valence and arousal that match the type of face misperceived. These effects are strongest for fearful faces. The findings suggest a mechanism for partial, self-encapsulated emotional-experiential apperception and a possible fear-primacy socio-emotional response module that operates under visual ambiguity and high psychophysiological arousal.