DISCOVER CUTTING EDGE EMOTION RESEARCH AT QUEEN'S
Queen's research on emotion encompasses a multifaceted exploration into understanding smiles, laughter, non-verbal vocalisations and how they affect social interactions.
Leveraging interdisciplinary approaches, Queen's researchers investigate facial expressions, emotion perception, empathy and expression recognition to address a range of issues such as the intertwined nature of emotion and interpersonal relationships.
SMILES
Queen's researchers undertake cutting edge research into how smiling can serve as a multifaceted communication tool, and how this can affect social interactions. A smile can convey appreciation, serve as a means of pacification, or even navigate social dynamics. Beyond its surface expression of joy, a smile holds the power to reward others for their actions, diffuse tension in challenging situations, or subtly establish social status. In its simplicity lies its complexity, as a smile transcends mere facial expression to become a nuanced language of its own, shaping interpersonal relationships and fostering connections in diverse contexts.
- Dominance, reward, and affiliation smiles modulate the meaning of uncooperative or untrustworthy behaviour
- Functional smiles: tools for love, sympathy, and war
- Gender Differences, Smiling, and Economic Negotiation Outcomes
- Smiling can build relationships even after someone has been untrustworthy, researchers find
LAUGHTER AND OTHER NON-VERBAL VOCALISATIONS
Queen’s has conducted groundbreaking research into understanding non-verbal vocalisations that are crucial to human to human interaction, examining how they convey social cues and manage the flow of interaction. These can include laughter, sighs, clicks and other short feedback responses that are all increasingly studied across research disciplines. Researchers at Queen’s are studying their production, connection to social actions and their perception.
- Feelings and contexts: socioecological influences on the nonverbal expression of emotion
- Laughter in cooperative and competitive settings
- Not only decibels: Exploring human judgments of laughter intensity
- The Role of Contextual Information in Classifying Spontaneous Social Laughter
- Social and acoustic determinants of perceived laughter intensity
- Social Context Disambiguates the Interpretation of Laughter
EMOTION, EMPATHY, EUDAIMONIA AND CURIOSITY
Queen’s research aims to aid in understanding why individuals seek emotionally charged information and when they opt to engage or regulate empathy. By looking into happiness, empathy, curiosity, and being kind to others, we can learn more about how emotions work and why we connect with others when they're going through tough times.
