Abstract
The kinematics of peoples’ body movements provide useful cues about emotional states: for example, angry movements are typically fast and sad movements slow. Unlike the body movement literature, studies of facial expressions have focused on spatial, rather than kinematic, cues. This series of experiments demonstrates that speed comprises an important facial emotion expression cue. In Experiments 1a–1c we developed (N = 47) and validated (N = 27) an emotion-induction procedure, and recorded (N = 42) posed and spontaneous facial expressions of happy, angry, and sad emotional states. Our novel analysis pipeline quantified the speed of changes in distance between key facial landmarks. We observed that happy expressions were fastest, sad were slowest, and angry expressions were intermediate. In Experiment 2 (N = 67) we replicated our results for posed expressions and introduced a novel paradigm to index communicative emotional expressions. Across Experiments 1 and 2, we demonstrate differences between posed, spontaneous, and communicative expression contexts. Whereas mouth and eyebrow movements reliably distinguished emotions for posed and communicative expressions, only eyebrow movements were reliable for spontaneous expressions. In Experiments 3 and 4 we manipulated facial expression speed and demonstrated a quantifiable change in emotion recognition accuracy. That is, in a discovery (N = 29) and replication sample (N = 41), we showed that speeding up facial expressions promotes anger and happiness judgments, and slowing down expressions encourages sad judgments. This influence of kinematics on emotion recognition is dissociable from the influence of spatial cues. These studies demonstrate that the kinematics of facial movements provide added value, and an independent contribution to emotion recognition.
Highlights
The kinematics of peoples’ body movements provide useful cues about emotional states: for example, angry movements are typically fast and sad movements slow
We introduced a new measure of dynamic, communicative facial emotion expression that elucidates the kinematics of expression during verbal utterances, and which is highly relevant to our everyday social interactions
In a series of four experiments, we demonstrate an important role for movement speed in both the production and perception of facial emotion expressions
Summary
The kinematics of peoples’ body movements provide useful cues about emotional states: for example, angry movements are typically fast and sad movements slow. Unlike the body movement literature, studies of facial expressions have focused on spatial, rather than kinematic, cues This series of experiments demonstrates that speed comprises an important facial emotion expression cue. In a discovery (N ϭ 29) and replication sample (N ϭ 41), we showed that speeding up facial expressions promotes anger and happiness judgments, and slowing down expressions encourages sad judgments This influence of kinematics on emotion recognition is dissociable from the influence of spatial cues. Jack and colleagues reverse correlate participants’ categorical emotion responses with the facial action unit activated in the corresponding face Their analysis demonstrates that are specific action units diagnostic of individual emotions (e.g., movement of the eyebrow region aids in distinguishing expressions of anger from disgust) but the temporal order of action unit activation is crucial for successful emotion identification. Do the internal features of the face move faster when an individual feels happy compared to when they feel sad?
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