Abstract. Past research suggests that transient mood influences the perception of facial expressions of emotion, but relatively little is known about how trait-level emotionality (i.e., temperament) may influence emotion perception or interact with mood in this process. Consequently, we extended earlier work by examining how temperamental dimensions of negative emotionality and extraversion were associated with the perception accuracy and perceived intensity of three basic emotions and how the trait-level temperamental effect interacted with state-level self-reported mood in a sample of 88 adults (27 men, 18–51 years of age). The results indicated that higher levels of negative mood were associated with higher perception accuracy of angry and sad facial expressions, and higher levels of perceived intensity of anger. For perceived intensity of sadness, negative mood was associated with lower levels of perceived intensity, whereas negative emotionality was associated with higher levels of perceived intensity of sadness. Overall, our findings added to the limited literature on adult temperament and emotion perception.
