Social Exclusion Recall Enhances LPP Sensitivity to Task-Irrelevant Negative Emotional Expressions

Across three studies, we find that task-irrelevant scowling (but not smiling) emotional facial expressions enhance the right posterior Late Positive Potential (LPP), an indicator of enhanced stimulus processing. Such LPP modulation by task-irrelevant scowling facial expressions was even more pronounced after recalling social exclusion. Implications for rumination are discussed.