Identification of emotions in mixed disgusted-happy faces as a function of depressive symptom severity

Background and objectives: Interpersonal difficulties are common in depression, but their underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood. The role of depression in the identification of mixed emotional signals with a direct interpersonal value remains unclear. The present study aimed to clarify this question.

Methods: A sample of 39 individuals reporting a broad range of depression levels completed an emotion identification task where they viewed faces expressing three emotional categories (100% disgusted and 100% happy faces, as well as their morphed 50% disgusted - 50% happy exemplars). Participants were asked to identify the corresponding depicted emotion as "clearly disgusted", "mixed", or "clearly happy".

Results: Higher depression levels were associated with lower identification of positive emotions in 50% disgusted - 50% happy faces.

Limitations: The study was conducted with an analogue sample reporting individual differences in subclinical depression levels. Further research must replicate these findings in a clinical sample and clarify whether differential emotional identification patterns emerge in depression for different mixed negative-positive emotions (sad-happy vs. disgusted-happy).

Conclusions: Depression may account for a lower bias to perceive positive states when ambiguous states from others include subtle signals of social threat (i.e., disgust), leading to an under-perception of positive social signals.