Want to really understand how other people are feeling? Close your eyes and listen. This is the conclusion reached by scientists who recently conducted research on the empathic accuracy of various forms of communication. The results of this study were the first to indicate that the main way of expressing emotions may not be what you thought. This means that emotions are expressed in voice rather than in facial expressions and body language as previously thought. “Humans are actually incredibly good at using many of their senses to express emotions, yet emotion research has historically focused almost exclusively on facial expressions,” said Michael Kraus, social psychologist and author of the study.
Does sound convey emotion?
The results of the study described in detail several of the experiments carried out. In the first, the researchers asked participants to watch online videos of groups of friends making fun of each other's nicknames. Such a scene was offered to participants in three forms: audio only, audio and video, and video only. They were then asked to interpret how these friends were feeling, rating from zero to eight different emotions, such as surprise, embarrassment, or joy. The result was surprising, as people who only heard the conversation but did not see the video were better able to interpret the emotions that these friends felt.
Interesting trick
In another study, students were gathered in a room to discuss their favorite TV shows, movies, food and drinks. For one group, the conversation took place in a lighted room, and for another, in a dark room. As with the first experiment, the group of people who could not see interpreted the emotions of others better than those whose room was lit. In the end, the scientists took the audio recording from the first experiment and asked the participants to listen to two versions of it: a real dialogue between friends and a computerized voice reading the same text. It would seem that identical emotional information could be obtained from the same words, however, participants who listened to the computerized voice did much worse at identifying emotions.
Promotional video:
Emotional coloring of speech
“The difference between the emotional information you get when listening to a conversation between real people and what you get when listening to a computerized voice was the largest,” said Kraus. "What you say is not important for defining emotions, but how you say it." Naturally, it seems that more information, namely audio and video, will better allow you to read the emotions of other people, but it turns out that this is not at all the case.
Limitations of cognitive abilities
One of the explanations concerns the topic of limitations in human cognitive abilities. When a person receives both visual and auditory information at the same time, more effort is required for his brain to process the received data. Just like a computer slows down if you open a large number of programs. The processing of visual information is particularly resource intensive. Quite a large part of a person's brain power is spent on understanding what is happening in the surrounding sensory world. If you fold your hands behind your head, then the area covered by your palms will be approximately equal to the part of the brain that is used to recognize information from the outside world through your eyes. This same region of the brain is responsible for fetching visual memories. This is why many people close their eyes when trying to remember small details or simply concentrate on solving difficult problems.
Memories
In 2011, a study was conducted, the results of which describe in detail the features of this idea. As part of the study, participants were asked to watch a short episode of a television series and then recall details of some of the events that happened in the series. The researchers divided the participants into four groups, asking everyone to recall what happened in the series, but while some looked at a blank computer screen, others closed their eyes, still others looked at a computer screen that displayed various random images, and some looked at a blank computer screen. while listening to words spoken in an unfamiliar language. As in a recent study, the groups that received the least amount of visual information, that is, either closed their eyes or stared at a blank screen, performed better than others. Interestingly, those participants who looked at the screen displaying random images had less memory for visual details, while those participants who heard words in an unfamiliar language had less memory for sound details.
Emotion masking
Another possible explanation is much less rosy. People have an innate tendency to mask their emotions, from a forced smile when you have a bad day at work, to manipulating people to cheat them. And since the human voice is the primary way to communicate emotion, adding visual elements such as body language or facial expressions gives people a great way to mask their true feelings. One way or another, scientists recommend paying more attention to what other people are saying, as well as how they do it.
Marina Ilyushenko
