Abstract
Vocalizations including laughter, cries, moans, or screams constitute a potent source of information about the affective states of others. It is typically conjectured that the higher the intensity of the expressed emotion, the better the classification of affective information. However, attempts to map the relation between affective intensity and inferred meaning are controversial. Based on a newly developed stimulus database of carefully validated non-speech expressions ranging across the entire intensity spectrum from low to peak, we show that the intuition is false. Based on three experiments (N = 90), we demonstrate that intensity in fact has a paradoxical role. Participants were asked to rate and classify the authenticity, intensity and emotion, as well as valence and arousal of the wide range of vocalizations. Listeners are clearly able to infer expressed intensity and arousal; in contrast, and surprisingly, emotion category and valence have a perceptual sweet spot: moderate and strong emotions are clearly categorized, but peak emotions are maximally ambiguous. This finding, which converges with related observations from visual experiments, raises interesting theoretical challenges for the emotion communication literature.
Highlights
Vocalizations including laughter, cries, moans, or screams constitute a potent source of information about the affective states of others
This generalization has been challenged by the discovery of perceptual ambiguity for facial[10,11] and vocal[12] expressions of peak emotional intensity
Three experiments show that listeners are remarkably good at inferring meaning from variably intense nonverbal vocalizations
Summary
Vocalizations including laughter, cries, moans, or screams constitute a potent source of information about the affective states of others. Listeners are clearly able to infer expressed intensity and arousal; in contrast, and surprisingly, emotion category and valence have a perceptual sweet spot: moderate and strong emotions are clearly categorized, but peak emotions are maximally ambiguous This finding, which converges with related observations from visual experiments, raises interesting theoretical challenges for the emotion communication literature. Vocalizations of extreme positive valence could not be disambiguated from extreme negative valence These authors demonstrated a trend opposite the predicted relation for peak intense positive situations: the reactions of real-life lottery winners were rated more negatively as hedonic intensity (in this case cued by the prize sum) increased. The contrast differs between the groups of studies (emotion categories versus hedonic value, i.e., positive or negative)
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