New study finds people perceive “negative emotions” as lower class

People tend to associate negative emotional expressions with lower social class standing and positive expressions with higher social class standing, according to new research published in the journal Emotion.

The new findings indicate that stereotypes about class differences in wellbeing influence our perceptions of others.

To gauge what facial expressions to focus on, the researcher first surveyed 30 individuals regarding what emotions they thought rich and poor people tended to experience. Then, in four studies that included 675 individuals in total, participants viewed images of faces with varying expressions and categorized each into a social class group.

Read more at PsyPost.

SOURCE: “Negative emotion and perceived social class” by R. Thora Bjornsdottir and Nicholas O. Rule.