Touch and voice have different advantages in perceiving positive and negative emotions

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Nonverbal Communication
• Affective Science

Background:

• Previous studies indicate that emotions can be perceived through tactile sensory information.
• The comparative advantages of touch versus other nonverbal channels, like voice, remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the perception of emotions conveyed via touch versus voice.
• To identify the specific advantages of each communication channel concerning emotional valence.

Main Methods:

• Participants (encoders) expressed 12 distinct emotions through tactile stimulation on a decoder's arm.
• Simultaneously, encoders conveyed emotions by uttering the syllable /e/.
• Decoders then judged the expressed emotions for both modalities.

Main Results:

• The accuracy for identifying negative emotions was higher when conveyed through voice compared to touch.
• Perception accuracy for positive emotions was marginally higher when communicated via touch than voice.
• A significant difference in accuracy between touch and voice was observed for negative emotions.

Conclusions:

• Voice and touch possess different strengths in nonverbal emotional communication.
• Voice appears more advantageous for conveying negative emotional states.
• Touch may offer a slight advantage in perceiving positive emotions, warranting further investigation.