Chapter 4: Communication of Emotions
- the communication of emotion is central to play, grieving, arguing, soothing, status negotiation, persuasion and
socialization
- nonverbal communication single words like “smile, touch, gaze, laugh” not enough to describe the language
o many contrasting emotional connotations
- 5 categories of nonverbal behaviour:
o Emblems: nonverbal gestures that directly translate to words
E.g. rubbing forefinger with the other one = “shame on you”
emblems vary in their meaning across cultures
o Illustrator: a nonverbal gesture that accompanies our speech slightly precede the corresponding word
we say
E.g. nodding head when making important phrases, move torso to show empathy +facial gestures
o Regulators: nonverbal behaviours that we use to coordinate conversation
E.g. looking and pointing to orient their bodies toward people they want to start speaking with +
turn body away to stop speaking (regulators help regulate who talks in conversation)
o Self-Adapter: nervous behaviours people engage in with no seeming intention (to release nervous
energy)
E.g. touching necks, tug hair, jiggle legs, stroke their chins
o Non-verbal expressions/displays of emotion: signals in the face, voice, body, and touch can convey
emotion
- Markers of Emotional Expressions
o Emotional expressions are fairly brief (1-10 seconds)
Smile accompanying enjoyment = 1-10 secs
Polite smile with minimal emotion = ¼ of a sec – long period of time
o Facial expressions of emotion = involuntary muscle actions (cannot be produced when they fee like it,
cannot be suppressed) different neuroanatomical basis
Anger = muscles tightening around mouth
o emotional expressions have their parallels (homologues) in the display of other species (emotions derive
from evolutionary heritage)
- Universality of Facial Expressions:
o Darwin: 3 principles to explain the appearance of emotional expressions
Principle of serviceable habits: expressive behaviours that have led to rewards will re-occur in
the future furrowing of eyebrow = protects eyes from attacks/aggression:. Furrow when angry
Principles of antithesis: opposing states will be associated with opposing expressions
strength/confidence expressed by expanding the chest and shoulders/ weakness expressed by
opposite (shoulder shrug) usually applies to embarrassment and pride
Principle of nervous charge: excess, undirected energy is released in random expressions leg
shakes, face touching, etc.
o Encoding Hypothesis: if emotions are universal, the experience of different emotions should be
associated with the same distinct facial expressions in every society worldwide
o Decoding Hypothesis: if there are universal emotions, people of different cultures should interpret these
expressions in the same way
Tested with facial expressions, voices expressions, and with touch
o 6 different emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise
Accuracy rate to depict emotion from photo = 80-90% for Fore people (:. PART OF HUMAN
NATURE)
o Emotional expression recognition occurs early in development
- Critiques to Universality of Facial Expressions:
o Gradient critique: some emotional expressions were less well recognized (fear, surprise and disgust) and
some emotional expressions were recognized universally (happiness, anger, sadness)
**gradient of recognition (TRUE)
o Forced choice: participants are FORCED to label the expressions using terms the researcher provided
(Fore people may name them differently, or have a whole new word for it)
**participants from strikingly different cultures still recognized facial expressions with similar
expressions
1 ** from experiment conducted between U.S. and India with universality and free response data
o Ecological validity: perhaps expressions portrayed in studies (Ekman’s) are not the kind of expressions
that people routinely judge in their daily lives (facial expressions highly exaggerated by actors)
Would everyday, more subtle expressions of emotion, be reliably judged??
- People recognize emotions through dynamic displays better (video clips)
- Other expressions of universality have been discovered!!!
o Contempt (sneer), Exhilaration (laughter with the contraction of muscles surrounding eyes)
o Specific emotion correlates with a unique pattern of facial actions (encoding evidence) that can be
understood by different cultures of people (decoding evidence)
- Embarrassment = appeasement-related emotion (signals one’s lower status e.g. after transgressions to show
social reconciliation)
o Characterized the nonverbal act of embarrassment by subjecting participants to embarrassing procedures
E.g. Singing emphatically then watching one’s own performance with others
E.g. Keltner: Having a stern experimenter tell you to make odd facial expressions (with a
stationary head position to record frame by frame analysis)
• embarrassed expression shown in the first 2-3 seconds after the participant released odd
facial expression (affective display)
o Loss of physical poise and composure in front of others involuntary muscle actions looking down,
turn head away, brief smile, mouth movements (lip press, suck), furtive glances, touching face etc.
Static photos of embarrassment also CAN BE distinguished from shame
o Human embarrassment displays resemble the appeasement displays of other species
- Displays of Positive Emotion
o Commitment-based analysis:
love expressed in a coherent pattern of smiling, mutual gaze, affiliative hand gestures, open
posture, forward leans
desire signals in lip-related action (licks, wipes, and tongue protrusions)
o Pride:
Signals opposite from weakness:. postural expansion + backward head tilt + slight smile
o Sympathy/Compassion:
Oblique eyebrows and concerned gaze (expression associated with increased helping behaviour)
DIFFERENT from distress
- SOME say (Russell and his colleagues): limited universality in emotional expressions
o BUT preliminary evidence indicates that there may be universality in expressions of love, desire, shame,
pride, embarrassment, sympathy
- Facial expressions and the coordination of social interaction
o Expressions of emotion are more than just signals of internal states
o Facial expressions coordinate social interactions through their: INFORMATIVE, EVOCATIVE, &
INCENTIVE functions
Informative: emotional experience and expression are sources of information about the social
world
• emotional displays = sender’s emotions, intentions, relationship with target +
environment external to the relationship
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