Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 107, Issue 6, Pages 2408-2412Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0908239106
Keywords
communication; affect; universality; vocal signals
Categories
Funding
- Economic and Social Research Council
- University College London Graduate School Research Project Fund
- University of London Central Research Fund
- University College London Department of Psychology
- Wellcome Trust
- Economic and Social Research Council [ES/E007163/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- ESRC [ES/E007163/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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Emotional signals are crucial for sharing important information, with conspecifics, for example, to warn humans of danger. Humans use a range of different cues to communicate to others how they feel, including facial, vocal, and gestural signals. We examined the recognition of nonverbal emotional vocalizations, such as screams and laughs, across two dramatically different cultural groups. Western participants were compared to individuals from remote, culturally isolated Namibian villages. Vocalizations communicating the so-called basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise) were bidirectionally recognized. In contrast, a set of additional emotions was only recognized within, but not across, cultural boundaries. Our findings indicate that a number of primarily negative emotions have vocalizations that can be recognized across cultures, while most positive emotions are communicated with culture-specific signals.
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