“Invisible Dangers”: unconscious processing of angry vs fearful faces and its relationship to subjective anger

Traditional paradigms for studying the unconscious processing of threatening facial expressions have methodological limitations, with most research focusing on fear, leaving important gaps in understanding anger. Using Continuous Flash Suppression (CFS), we compared the emergence times of angry, happy, and fearful expressions into awareness and examined their influence on anger intensity after an anger induction protocol. Results showed that angry faces tended to break suppression faster than happy faces but significantly more slowly than fearful faces. This suggests that processing anger may engage more complex cognitive mechanisms compared to fear, resulting in delayed awareness. Additionally, the faster emergence of fear compared to anger was linked to increased state anger after the induction, indicating that unconscious emotional processing differences can affect subjective anger experiences. These findings provide new insights into how unconscious emotional processing of anger and fear differs, with potential implications for understanding the cognitive basis of anger.