Emotion in motion: The impact of affective gait on pedestrian collision avoidance strategies

Pedestrian collision avoidance requires adjustments in speed and trajectory. While previous research focused on situational factors such as pedestrian speed and approach direction, the influence of emotion expressed through gait remains largely unexplored.

This study investigated how emotional gait and approach direction of virtual pedestrians (VRPs) jointly shape locomotor strategies, and whether gait influences avoidance behaviour independently of walking speed.

Twenty healthy adults walked 7 m toward a target while avoiding VRPs displaying happy, sad, angry, neutral, or speed-matched neutral emotional gait patterns, approaching centrally or diagonally. Minimum distance from VRPs, onset distance, maximal lateral deviation, and walking speed were compared across conditions using generalized estimating equations.

Minimum distance did not differ across conditions (p > 0.05), whereas emotion × direction interactions emerged for onset distance (p = 0.004), maximal lateral deviation (p = 0.004), and minimum walking speed (p = 0.01). Angry gait produced larger onset distances than other emotions (p < 0.0001), with the angry-center combination yielding the largest values. For diagonally-approaching VRPs, sad gait increased maximal lateral deviations (p < 0.001) and angry gait reduced minimum walking speeds (p < 0.0001). Differences persisted when comparing emotional gait with speed-matched neutral counterparts (p < 0.009).

Emotional cues and approach directions interact and shape collision avoidance behaviour, likely mediated by threat assessment. Gait influences avoidance strategies beyond simple speed variations, highlighting the social nature of locomotion.

This new knowledge can serve as a reference point in characterizing locomotor strategies in populations suffering from neurological disorders that affect walking and emotion recognition, such as traumatic brain injury.