Moving While Feeling: Expressing Emotion in Body Movements

Monday, April 18, 2011

Melissa Gross

Professor
University of Michigan

People can easily detect the emotion that another person is feeling by observing their body movements. What, exactly, makes a sad movement look sad? In a series of multidisciplinary studies, we blend psychological paradigms for emotion induction with biomechanical methods for movement analysis to characterize emotionally expressive body movements. Study outcomes extend our understanding of the biological link between emotions and body movements in healthy individuals with applicability to studies of individuals with mood disorders