A Review on Gender Differences in Emotional

Expression: Facial Expressions, Social Roles,

and Online Social Networking

By
Kella Ortega
Hosung Cho
Czarina Marasigan
Cholo Maningat
Regina Julia Garcia

Introduction
A Review on Gender Differences in Emotional Expression

Over the years, it has become a common assumption that women are
more emotionally expressive than men. According to Kring and Gordon
(1998; as cited in Parkins, 2012), a lot of research about emotional
expressiveness in females and males have showed that females are the
more emotionally expressive gender. In addition to that, several emotions
have become considered stereotypical for females and males. Now, it is
more or less known that anger is more of a characteristic of men, while
happiness, sadness, and fear are more of the characteristics of women (Kelly
& Hutson-Comeaux, 1999 as cited in Parkins, 2012). In the research
conducted before, the relationship of gender differences and emotional
expression was not the only focus. With it, many other factors were taken
note of as well. Among these were the biological, cultural, social factors that
have been theorized to have influenced emotional expressions as well.
However, while the statements mentioned above have become quite
common knowledge with the number of studies that have been conducted
that have reported to have similar results, many of these studies have also
been concluded by their researchers to have many inconsistencies with
regards to their results. These inconsistent results have been reasoned to be
due to problems in the methodologies the researchers used (Feldman, 1997;
LaFrance & Banaji, 1992; Robinson, Johnson, & Shields, 1998; Shields, 2000
as cited by Fischer & Manstead, 2004). Also, other than inconsistent results,
as the world is rapidly evolving, many other new factors should be taken into
consideration with regards to this field of research. It is because of these
joint factors that this paper will be reviewing some of the recent studies
made concerning differences between genders with regards to emotional
expression through the contexts of facial expressions, social roles, and online
social networking interactions.
A well-accepted definition of emotion still does not exist. Supposedly,
emotion "is a relatively brief episode of synchronized evaluative
physiological, behavioural, and subjective responses (Dess, 2010, p. 3).

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However, regardless of the definition of emotion, psychologists agree that

emotion has three categories: cognitions, feelings, and actions (Kalat, 2013).
Whereas, emotional expressions may be defined as behaviours that
usually accompany emotions (Gross & John, 1997). These behaviours may be
seen in a persons face, voice, gesture, posture, and body movement, as
they are observable verbal and non-verbal behaviors. These communicate
either an affective state or internal emotional. For example, people show
facial movements such as smiling or scowling, or behaviors like crying or
laughing, in accordance to their emotions. Emotional expressions can occur
with or without self-awareness (Emotional health counselling, 2003). On the
other hand, gender difference will be defined as the socially established
difference between men and women (Nolen-Hoeksema, Larson & Grayson,
1999).
Body
A. Facial Expressions
One of the main ways to see what people are feeling is by observing
their facial expressions. In this section, gender differences in emotional
expressions will be depicted alongside its relationship with facial expressions.
Facial expressions are caused by motions made by muscles found in the
face. From the change or the movement of facial muscles, the emotional
state of an individual may be conveyed to observers (Wronka &
Walentowska, 2011). In order to understand and interpret facial expressions,
face perception is used. The perception of a positive or negative emotion on
a face affects the way an individual perceives and processes that face. A face
that is perceived to have negative emotions is processed in a less holistic
manner than a face that displays a positive emotion (Curby, Johnson, &
Tyson, 2012). Another important kind of perception that should be noted is
the direct-gaze perception. This kind of perception is significant for
processing visual information from a human face (Bruce & Young, 1986).
According to Becker, Kenrick, Neuberg, Blackwell, & Smith (2007), male
faces are easier to perceive when they express anger, while female faces are

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easier to perceive when they are expressing joy. This was also seen in the
study made by Weisbuch, Slepian, Adams, and Ambady (2011). In their
study, stimuli were created from a set of standardized grayscale images
sized at 250 x 320 pixels. There were 8 targets, 4 white males and 4 white
females. They were all displaying a certain expression: angry, fearful, joyful,
and neutral; hence, having a total of 32 images. The images were taken from
the NimStim stimulus set (Tottenham et al., 2009) and the Montreal Set of
Facial Displays of Emotions (Beaupre & Hess, 2005). Then they added more
expression images of joy, anger, and fear. Using Adobe PhotoShop, they
adjusted the iris so that they were able to manipulate the direction of the
gaze of each image by 4 and 8 degrees to the left or to the right.
In their first experiment, participants were seated in front of a
computer and were told that a series of faces would be appearing on the
screen. They were tasked to identify if the images were directly facing them
or not. The 32 faces that were originally made were presented in a way that
they were showed thrice, where their eyes were adjusted in the next 2 times,
from 4 degrees or 8 degrees to the left or to the right. They were
counterbalanced in a way wherein the number of faces looking to the left
were the same number as the ones who were looking at the right. All stimuli
were randomly presented via DirectRT software. For each trial, participants
viewed a fixation point and then replaced by a face that stayed on-screen for
750 ms.; afterwards, participants were asked if the image was directly
looking at them (Weisbuch et al., 2011).

In their second study, the participants viewed images of apparent male

and female faces, and of prototypical male and female faces. Each facial
identity expressed angry, fearful, joyful, and neutral expressions while
displaying direct gazes in some images and averted gazes in other images.
Participants viewed each target (three apparent-males, three apparent-
females, three prototypical-males, three prototypical females) which
expressed each emotion with both direct and averted gazes. The same

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images were used in the first study, but the experimenter intentionally
removed 1 picture to accommodate a larger design. They also added 6 sets
of images that consisted of androgynous faces. Pictures that consisted of
androgynous faces were framed by either the hairstyle of a man or a woman,
and were labelled as apparent men and apparent women. There were 144
trials per participants. For each trial, the participants were shown 1 picture
for 750ms, and then were asked if the picture presented was gazing at them
directly. They modified the eyes in a similar manner as the first studies but
this time the images were showed 4 different emotions (Weisbuch et al.,
2011).

The two studies conducted were consistent with what Becker et al.
(2007) concluded; in that, emotional expressions are better perceived in
accordance to corresponding genders. Other things that were noted in this
experiment are that, first, direct eye gaze is makes it easier to perceive facial
features that indicate certain emotions. Emotional faces are related, shaped,
or constrained in accordance to the morphological structure of male and
female faces. This, in turn, also affects gaze perception (Weisbuch et al.,
2011).

A Social Roles
There are gender differences in emotional expressions seen within
social roles as well as in any social context. In many studies, the role of
gender in influencing emotional expression is often studied; along with this is
the influence of social roles. Social roles are identities or characteristics that
people who are members of a social group take-on or act as. These roles
influence the people who use them and those who interact with them. How a
person who is labelled under a social role acts may also influence how that
social role is seen by others (McLeod, 20008).
An aspect of social roles to be considered are gender roles found in a
families like the roles of a husband, a wife, a daughter, and a son. There
have been past studies which entail the relationship of these family gender

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roles to the way people express their emotions. For example, when
compared to how they express their emotions to their male infants, mothers
display more intense emotional expressions whenever they interact with
their female infants. The reason for an increase of facial expression of
females later in life is inferred from this fact (Malatesta, Culver, Tesman, &
Shepard, 1989).
Another study shows that, while there is no difference between how
fathers and mothers talk to their children about emotions, the type of gender
the receptor of their talk still affects how they deliver their piece. It was seen
that both gender of parents talk more about emotions to their daughters
than with their sons, most especially with regards to sadness. Also the talks
between either father or mother and the daughter mostly have interpersonal
content, as compared with their conversations with their sons. Interpersonal
content would mean anything that would involve the speakers talking about
other people related to them. These were the results of a study that tested
the difference between a mother and a father when talking with their
children. The independent variable of this study was the gender of the
participant, who was either the parents or the children. The dependent
variable of the study was the way in which parents discussed events related
to the given emotion with their children. The researchers visited the
participants homes twice. On the first visit, one of the parents would discuss
four emotional events with their child. On the second visit, the other parent
would discuss another four events with their child. The kind of emotion tied
to the events the parents were asked to discuss was chosen by picking from
the four cards provided. These four cards had different emotions written on
each of them. The emotions written were happy, angry, sad, and scared. The
researchers used coding to measure the results of the experiment. This is a
method which involves using keywords that have been operationally defined
in order to refer to certain things being said by the participants in the
experiment. The experimenter would then use the number of times the
keywords were noted as a means to study the quantitative measures of what

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was being said by the participant (Fivush, Brotman, Buckner, & Goodman,
2000).
Other than family roles, people also tend to regulate what emotions
they express and the degree in which they express these emotions
depending on the social context they find themselves in. In fact, there is an
article which mentions that people who have high positions of power find it
easier to express their anger (Carver & Harmon-Jones, 2009). Also, people
express their anger easier when they are talking to friends as compared to
when they are talking to strangers (Hess, 2009).
As an example, in a study, it was hypothesised that female participants
would smile more compared to men, women and people with lower status
would mimic facial emotions more compared to men and people of higher
status, and that anger would be shown less by the participants when
compared to happiness. The independent variables of the study were the
social status of the person (higher or lower) and their gender. The social
status of the participants was manipulated through the use of the procedure
as validated by Cantin and Hess (1998). The dependent variable was the
frequency of facial mimicry of the participant. The frequency of facial
mimicry was measured through the use of facial EMG. The experiment had
been tested under 2 conditions, same-sexed and mixed sexed dyads. In the
experiment, two participants were placed in a dyad, either same sexed and
mixed-sexed. They were told to converse with each other. They were to take
turns in talking and in listening. While the participants were conversing, their
facial muscles were measured using the facial EMG.
Results from both conditions were varied. The first hypothesis was
supported in that women showed more genuine smiles compared to men for
both conditions of the experiment. Also, from the first condition (same-sex),
people with the same status showed less genuine smiles compared to when
the status difference was more significant. In the second condition of the
experiment (mixed-sex), fewer significant differences were present. The
second hypothesis, which states that women and people with lower status

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mimic more compared to men and people with higher status, was not
supported because the frequency of mimicry was not affected by social
status and gender (Hess & Bourgeois, 2010). However, it was also considered
that the participant may have acted upon the social context presented by
experiment which probably inclined the participants to not exhibit their
anger. They were inclined to not display their anger because, in order to
paint good impression of themselves towards people they do not know, they
may not have expressed their honest negative emotions (Hess, Adams, &
Kleck, 2008). Another discovery was that men were seen to be more
particular in trying to understand the situation in which an emotion should be
mimicked, depending upon the emotional content of the narration, from the
narrator as compared to women (Hess & Bourgeois, 2010). This may be
explained by the social interactions they have had with women who, more
often than not, use less direct methods in expressing their real emotions or
intentions.
B Online Social Networking
In the last decade, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been
used more frequently than face-to-face (F2F) communication. Some argue
that communicating emotions is harder to do in CMC rather than in F2F.
Derks, Fischer, and Bos (2007) defined CMC as something that includes a
variety of electronic message systems and electronic conference systems,
which can be supplemented by audio and video links (p. 00). A lot of
interactions take place via e-mail and/or chat both privately and
professionally. We are now able to maintain relationships with family and
friends abroad because of these innovations. We use the Internet for a lot of
other things too, like checking the headlines of newspapers and Internet
dating. In this current age, it is hard to imagine where we would be without
the computer and the Internet. As CMC is now becoming an integral part of
our life, it is important to study how differently men and women express their
emotion online. This section will be discussing gender differences in
emotional expressiveness using text-based CMC.

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Parkins (2012) study aimed to examine the emotional expressiveness

of men and women in online social networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter. She hypothesized that, regardless of the influence of online social
communication, the stereotypes that men and women were exposed to
during their childhood will not affect the socially acceptable ways in how they
act, and that women will still be more emotionally expressive than men.
Parkins also hypothesized that women will use emotional expression markers
more frequently than men. In her experiment, she recruited 50 native
Australian participants, 25 males and 25 females, ages 17 to 25; they were a
mixture of students and people in the workforce. After gaining permission
from the participants, Parkins examined their Facebook and/or Twitter
account over a two-week period. She observed six techniques that were used
to express emotion. Parkins (2012) mentioned that the techniques were not
limited to six only, but she only studied what were most common. These
were:
1. the extensive use of punctuation markers (such as !! and ??)
2. the use of extensive full stops used within a speech sample (e.g. ); only
three or more were considered to be extensive use, as two could merely be a
typing error
3. the use of capitalized text
4. the addition of the same letter within a word (e.g. yeeeeeees)
5. the general use of emoticons (e.g. J, L)
6. the different means of expressing laughter (p.48)

The results of Parkins study revealed that women use emotional

expression markers more frequently than the men. This was seen in that
women in this study used more punctuation markers compared to men, and
also used full stops twice as often as the men did. An interesting observation
made based from the data gained was that women use capitalized text
frequently when talking to males than when talking to females.
Stereotypically, capitalized text has been associated with emotions of anger
but, upon further observation, the women in this study do not challenge this
stereotype. Instead, they have used capitalized text to also convey emotions
such as happiness, sadness, and fear (Parkins, 2012). It was observed that

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the fourth marker, which is the addition of same letters within a word, was
most often used by men and women when talking to the same gender. The
participants in the study also made use of laughter as an emotional
expression marker. Just as symbols were created to represent facial
expressions, words were also constructed to depict laughter online. The
most common markers observed in this study were haha, hehe, and lol.

Other than text - based ways of expressing emotions in CMC,

emoticons have also been used in CMC as visual representations of facial
expressions and also of what the user feels. In the study of Parkins (2012),
emoticons were the most frequently used marker. In the past, many have
argued that CMC is less personal and emotional compared to F2F because of
the lack of social and non-verbal cues (Derks et al., 2007). However, CMC
may not be entirely lacking in non-verbal cues, because emoticons are being
used to express a variety of emotions with the use of symbols rather than
words (Derks et al., 2007). According to Wolf (2000), women use emoticons
in more ways rather than using a larger quantity of emoticons. Women tend
to use emoticons frequently when expressing positive feelings such as
support or humor, while men tend to use emoticons to display sarcasm (Wolf,
2000).

Synthesis
In the study reviewed under gender differences in emotional expression
as characterized by facial expressions, males are more often seen expressing
their emotions through actions or though their executive ability. They also
more often reach conclusions through emotional expressions. However, for
males, anger is an emotion that is more readily perceived, whereas females
find it easier to perceive joy. However, while they tend to smile more
compared to males, they also a higher tendency to feel sadness more.
Females are also more interpersonal communicators and are more easily
affected by emotions.

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Whereas, in the studies reviewed under social roles, it was seen the
mothers tend to talk more. They also used more emotion words as compared
to the fathers. However, both mothers and fathers were seen to converse
more about emotions pertaining to sadness with their daughters as
compared to their sons. It was also seen that conversations with daughters
were found to have more interpersonal content. It was also seen that women
tend to smile more than men, and that both genders also rely on or base
from the emotional and context of a situation before they make or mimic
facial expressions.
Whereas, the study under online social networking concludes that
emotional expression in CMC (online) and F2F (offline) are similar. It was also
seen that women are the more emotionally expressive gender. From these
conclusions, it is seen that there is truly a trend indicating that females tend
to smile more and are more inclined to sadness as compared to men, alike
what previous studies, as indicated in the introduction, state. However, the
conclusion of this topic will still not be reached be through this since these
conclusions can also be attributed to how people believe they should act.
Since the studies stated above are open to variables that may be altered
depending upon circumstances like social and emotional contexts, it should
be noted that the participants' behavior should not only be inferred through
their gender and all the other stated independent variables of the studies.
Also, other studies suggest even state that there is no significant difference
between the emotional expressions of women and men. These studies
reason that many have found evidences of such in different researches
because these studies are open to social constructs, most specifically social
roles (LaFrance, Hecht, & Paluck, 2003). This truly may be so since it was
observed that, even as infants, people are already being trained on how to
express themselves in accordance to societal expectations, like their gender
roles (Malatesta, Culver, Tesman, & Shepard, 1989).

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