“Invisible Dangers”: preconscious detection of fearful vs angry faces influences the subjective experience of anger

Anger can profoundly disrupt psychological and social well-being when experienced intensely. Yet, our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms (both conscious and preconscious) underlying anger and their connection to subjective experience remains limited. This preliminary study investigated the relationship between preconscious detection of angry faces (vs happy and fear) and the subjective experience of anger. Thirty participants were administered a robust measure of preconscious processing - Continuous Flash Suppression -, followed by an anger induction protocol. Results showed a significantly quicker detection of fearful than happy faces and a trend for a faster anger detection over happiness, aligning with prior research suggesting a preconscious prioritization of threat stimuli. Our protocol was effective in eliciting subjective anger, but no significant association emerged between detection of angry faces and state anger symptoms following the anger induction. Interestingly, however, participants showing faster detection of fear relative to anger displayed increased state anger post-induction. This finding suggests that a preferential detection of fearful vs slower detection of angry faces could ultimately contribute to an increased predisposition to experience anger following an anger-inducing event, hence shedding light on the early cognitive mechanisms influencing subjective emotional experiences. Future work is needed to further explore this effect.