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Can perceivers recognise emotions from spontaneous expressions?
Disa A Sauter1, Agneta H Fischer1
1a Department of Social Psychology , University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , Netherlands.
Cognition & Emotion
|April 28, 2017
Summary
Researchers found that people can accurately recognize emotions from spontaneous expressions, not just posed ones. This suggests spontaneous expressions are reliable cues for understanding emotions, even matching posed expressions in recognition accuracy.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Nonverbal Communication
- Emotion Recognition
Background:
- Posed emotional expressions are commonly used in research.
- Concerns exist that posed stimuli may overestimate emotion recognition accuracy compared to spontaneous expressions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the recognition accuracy of emotions from spontaneous versus posed expressions.
- To investigate the influence of intensity and prototypicality on emotion recognition.
Main Methods:
- Participants judged emotions from posed and spontaneous auditory, visual, and audiovisual stimuli.
- Expressions were rated for spontaneity, intensity, and prototypicality.
Main Results:
- Accurate emotion recognition was achieved from both posed and spontaneous expressions.
- Perceived intensity and prototypicality significantly impacted recognition, especially for spontaneous expressions.
- Recognition levels for spontaneous expressions were comparable to posed stimuli.
Conclusions:
- Spontaneous emotional expressions are reliably recognized by perceivers.
- Intensity and prototypicality are key factors in understanding spontaneous emotions.
- Research using posed stimuli may not necessarily inflate recognition accuracy compared to spontaneous expressions.
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