MAS 965 · Signalling identity
Instructor: Judith Donath

05.06 · hiding and expressing emotion

readings

General articles about signaling and emotion:

• Leda Cosmides and John Tooby. 2000. Evolutionary Psychology and the Emotions (preprint)
• Marc Hauser. Information about affective state In The Evolution of Communication (section 7.2.1)

Articles about faces and emotion:

• Fernandez-Dols and Ruiz-Belda. Spontaneous facial behavior during intense emotional episodes
• Fridlund, Alan. The new ethology of human facial expression (handout from last week)
• Ekman, P. (1997). Should we call it expression or communication? Innovations in Social Science Research, 10, 333-344.

Article about voice and emotion:

• Klaus R. Scherer. 2003. Vocal communication of emotion: A review of research paradigms . in Speech Communication Volume 40, Issues 1-2 , April 2003, Pages 227-256

Article about computer sensing of emotion:

• Roz Picard. 2000. Toward computers that recognize and respond to user emotion.

introduction

Emotion, and the signals of emotion, is a complex topic.

• The first thing we need to think about is "what are emotions?". We've all felt happy, sad, angry, etc. - but what is really occuring when we feel these things?  Is there an underlying physiological phenomenon? What is it that the mind is experiencing?
• Other people's emotions are of great interest to us. Knowing their emotional response to our words and actions lets us know what they think of us and may influence us to change our behavior. Knowing their emotional state can help us predict their behavior. However, we cannot directly observe someone else's emotions; we must rely on signals of these emotions.
• People often, though not always, would like to communicate their emotions. We like to let others know that we are happy along with them, if we are angry, we also would like for them to know. However, there are times when we do not want to communicate our feelings. If I am happy at an inappropriate time, or if I want to seem angry but am actually terrified, I would prefer to keep my emotions to myself.
• So, how are emotions conveyed, i.e. what are the signals that indicate emotional state? How are these signals tied to the underlying emotional state? Are they reliable signals of state? Or, are they open to manipulation? How readable are they? What are the differences between signals such as facial expression, which are meant to be communicative, and galvanic skin response, which is not?

assignment

1. Read the introduction, above. These are the big questions I would like you to be thinking about as you do the readings for this week.

2. The face communicates emotion. Is this communication intentional or involuntary? What is the benefit of this signaling to the sender and to the receiver? Is it a reliable signal of emotional state?  Please read the Ekman and Fridlund papers, which posit two quite different views on these questions. Write an essay in which you first summarize the views of these two authors, and then address these questions based on your reading of these 2 papers as well as any of the other readings. (Hauser, for example, proposes a view that unifies some of the differenes based on differnt levels of analysis).

3. Write another essay addressing the questions raised in the introduction. Please base your essay on the readings above. You do not need to read all of them in depth, but do use them as a basis for your discussion.

Please submit the URL of your essays by Tuesday evening.