The effects of physical emotion intensity and perceived emotions on trait and ability judgments are non-linear

Facial expressions are important cues for trait inferences, yet most research focuses on intense, prototypical displays, leaving open how observers interpret ambiguous or blended expressions. Across two studies, we examined how anger-sadness morphs shape emotion perception and social judgments, and whether these effects differ by expresser gender. Study 1 revealed categorical perception of anger-sadness blends, with male faces categorized as angry at lower physical anger intensities than female faces. Study 2 showed that female faces were perceived as sadder and male faces as angrier primarily at lower physical anger intensities. Social judgments varied non-linearly with perceived anger and sadness, with the pattern differing by judgment domain and expresser gender. Higher perceived anger predicted greater dominance, lower affiliation, and, for male expressers, greater leadership ability, whereas higher perceived sadness predicted lower dominance and leadership ability. Crucially, gender differences in social judgments were reduced once perceived anger and sadness were taken into account. Thus, anger-sadness morphs reveal socially structured, non-linear patterns of emotion perception and person judgment that may be missed by focusing only on prototypical endpoint expressions.