Stimuli with features of an unfamiliarcultural background (out-group) might influence reaction, e.g. to emotion expressions. The Islamic headdress (niqab), as an out-group feature in Western cultures,leaves only the area around the eyes visible and thus additionally impedesidentification of facial features. Patients with psychiatric disorders, e.g.depression, have been shown to react more stereotypically to out-group stimuli.

The aim of our study is to examine the abilityof depressives in the identification of facial emotions with in- and out-groupfeatures.

Twenty five patients with depression (HAMD >10) and 25 healthycontrols were assessed. We employed a paradigm which consisted of six femalefaces with the emotion expressions happy, angry, sad and fearful. The faces were either covered by cap/scarf (in-group) or by niqab.

Only correct answers were analyzed. Patients with depression needed significantly longerto identify emotions than healthy controls. In both groups, anger was the emotionrecognized significantly faster, whereas reaction to sadness was slowest. Theinteraction of emotion item x stimulus type indicated a faster reaction tohappy faces in the cap / scarf condition and a faster reaction to sadness inthe niqab condition in both groups.

Results of our study replicaterecent findings of a general out-group / in-group effect in emotionidentification and can be interpreted as further evidence for acontext-dependent stimulus processing. Larger sample sizes and higher scores onHAMD might be needed to indicate a specific out-group / in-group effect indepressed patients.