Does background color influence the perception of facial expression? Adjustment to neutral expression by Caucasian and Japanese participants

Color is linked to emotions, with the strongest link between red and anger. This study primarily addressed whether a red background increases perceived facial angriness, using a method that did not require explicit processing of either color or emotional expression, in participants of two ethnicities (Caucasian and Japanese) and genders (female and male). Their task was to adjust the expression on a face to neutral. The face stimuli were image continua of angry, neutral, and happy expressions presented on four background colors (red, saturated red, green, and gray). The neutral points were not influenced by background color or participants' ethnicity, suggesting that previous findings showing an enhancement of reported facial anger by a red background were likely due to response biases rather than a perceptual effect.