Exploring difference in recognition and confusion of facial expressions between high and low problematic internet use individuals: Evidence from behavior and ERPs.

Accurate recognition of facial expressions is crucial for effective interpersonal socialization, but individuals with problematic internet use (PIU) may face challenges. This study compared facial expression recognition between high PIU (HPIU) and low PIU (LPIU) individuals across three experiments. Experiment 1, using six-alternative forced choice task, found that HPIU individuals recognized six basic emotions significantly less accurately than LPIU individuals and showed greater confusion, particularly for negative expressions. Experiment 2 focused on anger and disgust expressions using the emotional expression multimorph task. HPIU individuals made significantly more errors for both expressions. Experiment 3, using event-related potentials (ERPs), revealed HPIU individuals exhibited higher N170 amplitude to anger at early stages. Additionally, HPIU individuals demonstrated higher aggression, emotional social isolation, state-trait anxiety, and immature defense styles. Correlation analysis showed that after FDR correction, only aggression levels (and its subscales) correlated significantly with facial expression recognition task performance. These findings offer initial insights into PIU-related facial expression recognition differences and highlight aggression as a key psychosocial correlate. Observed trends in specific facial expression recognition area warrant further investigation.