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Separating production from perception: Perceiver-based explanations for sex differences in emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2009

Jennifer M. B. Fugate ,
Harold Gouzoules  and
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Jennifer M. B. Fugate
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. fugatej@bc.edu
Harold Gouzoules
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 3032. psyhg@emory.eduhttp://www.psychology.emory.edu/nab/gouzoules/index.html
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. fugatej@bc.edu Massachusetts General Hospital – East, Charlestown, MA 02129. barretli@bc.eduhttp://www2.bc.edu/~barretli/
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Abstract

In this commentary, we review evidence that production-based (perceiver-independent) measures reveal few consistent sex differences in emotion. Further, sex differences in perceiver-based measures can be attributed to retrospective or dispositional biases. We end by discussing an alternative view that women might appear to be more emotional because they are more facile with emotion language.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 394 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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