New Study: Teens More Sensitive To Angry, Fearful Faces Than Adults

BOSTON (CBS) - Why are teenagers so sensitive to criticism, yet as we age we seem to care less about what people think of us? To find out, researchers at McLean Hospital used a digital test of emotion sensitivity.

They took almost 10,000 males and females between the ages of 10 and 85 and showed them images of faces in pairs, then asked them to identify which face was angrier, happier or more fearful.

They found that teens are particularly sensitive to facial expressions of anger, which might explain why they are more vulnerable to bullying. But as people age, they become less sensitive to facial cues conveying both anger and fear.

Interestingly, one measure that seems to stay rather constant over our lifespan is our ability to recognize happiness in people's faces.