Varieties of Cues to Emotion in Naturally Occurring Situations

Abstract

People were asked to observe a person with whom they lived, to report when they noticed that person experiencing an emotion, and to report what cues they used to detect the emotion. In Phase 1, observers were told to "list the cues they used"; in Phase 2, they were told to "describe how they could tell"" that the target person was experiencing an emotion. Results were similar in both phases. Only 5 of the 182 respondents reported using a single cue whereas 10 reported using at least a dozen cues. Two out of three respondents reported using vocal cues; over a half reported using facial, indirect verbal, and context cues; nearly a half reported using body and activity cues; about a quarter of the respondents reported using physiological, trait, and other cues; and fewer than a tenth reported using direct verbal cues. Roughly the same number of cues and the same distribution of cue categories was found regardless of the emotion being observed, the sex of the person observing, the sex of the person being observed, or the type of relationship between them.