fr
Article scientifique
Accès libre
Anglais

Jumping for joy: the importance of the body and of dynamics in the expression and recognition of positive emotions

Contributeurs/tricesMortillaro, Marcelloorcid; Dukes, Daniel
Publié dansFrontiers in Psychology, vol. 9, no. 763
Date de publication2018
Résumé

The majority of research on emotion expression has focused on static facial prototypes of a few selected, mostly negative emotions. Implicitly, most researchers seem to have considered all positive emotions as sharing one common signal (namely, the smile), and consequently as being largely indistinguishable from each other in terms of expression. Recently, a new wave of studies has started to challenge the traditional assumption by considering the role of multiple modalities and the dynamics in the expression and recognition of positive emotions. Based on these recent studies, we suggest that positive emotions are better expressed and correctly perceived when (a) they are communicated simultaneously through the face and body and (b) perceivers have access to dynamic stimuli. Notably, we argue that this improvement is comparatively more important for positive emotions than for negative emotions. Our view is that the misperception of positive emotions has fewer immediate and potentially life-threatening consequences than the misperception of negative emotions; therefore, from an evolutionary perspective, there was only limited benefit in the development of clear, quick signals that allow observers to draw fine distinctions between them. Consequently, we suggest that the successful communication of positive emotions requires a stronger signal than that of negative emotions, and that this signal is provided by the use of the body and the way those movements unfold. We hope our contribution to this growing field provides a new direction and a theoretical grounding for the many lines of empirical research on the expression and recognition of positive emotions.

Groupe de recherche
Financement
Citation (format ISO)
MORTILLARO, Marcello, DUKES, Daniel. Jumping for joy: the importance of the body and of dynamics in the expression and recognition of positive emotions. In: Frontiers in Psychology, 2018, vol. 9, n° 763. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00763
Fichiers principaux (1)
Article (Published version)
Identifiants
ISSN du journal1664-1078
491vues
200téléchargements

Informations techniques

Création15/06/2018 10:03:00
Première validation15/06/2018 10:03:00
Heure de mise à jour15/03/2023 08:22:12
Changement de statut15/03/2023 08:22:12
Dernière indexation12/02/2024 11:33:22
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack