Contrary to popular belief, looking at someone's face alone is not enough to tell us whether they are roaring in celebration or screaming in frustration, researchers claimed.While people may believe they have the ability to read each other's faces, body language is the real clue that shows whether strong emotions someone is feeling are positive or negative. In a study, groups of participants were shown a series of facial expressions such as tennis players photographed just after winning or losing a point. In some cases the volunteers were able to see the player's full body, but in others they were only shown either their face or their body with the other removed. Participants could clearly tell whether the players were winning or losing when they were shown the full picture or just the body, but their guesses were no better than chance when based on the face alone. Those who were allowed to see the full image were convinced they had made their judgment based on the players' facial expressions even though results from the two other groups suggested otherwise. The researchers carried out a second study where participants were shown a wider range of faces showing emotions including joy, pleasure, victory, pain and defeat. Using photoediting software, the researchers attached the faces to bodies expressing the opposite emotion, and asked participants to act out the emotions they saw in the photos. The resulting poses were like the body poses in the photographs but not the facial expressions, demonstrating that people base their interpretation of strong emotions not on the face but the body. Dr Aviezer, who led the study, said, "These results show that when emotions become extremely intense, the difference between positive and negative facial expressions becomes unclear.The results may help researchers understand how our body interacts during emotional situations.For example, individuals may fail to recognize facial expressions, but if they are trained to process important body language, their performance may significantly improve." What did Dr Aviezer think of the results of the study?
Ridiculous. Useless. Unrealistic. Helpful.