Facial Affect Recognition and Schizotypal Characteristics: A Cross-Cultural Study.
When the group was examined as a whole, high scores on the Cognitive-perceptual factor were associated with poorer EP. Contrary to predictions, interpersonal aspects of schizotypy were associated with increased, not decreased accuracy on the facial affect recognition task. No association was found between affect recognition accuracy and “disorganised” schizotypy. Interestingly, associations were found between less accurate identification of other culture, negative emotions for both the Anglo-Australian and Mainland Chinese sample and there were different patterns of associations between EP and schizotypal features for the two groups.
These results suggest that subtle deficits in facial affect perception in psychiatrically well individuals may be related to the vulnerability for cognitive-perceptual deficits, as seen in schizophrenia and that it can be found across cultures. This may be related to the perception of negative emotions, and heightened when there is more uncertainty in identification, such as when identifying the emotions in people of other cultural groups.
