The effects of affect valence and nonverbal channel on audience detection of emotion

Abstract

This study investigated the degree to which affect valance and nonverbal channel influence the accuracy of emotion detection. Participants included 120 undergraduate students who completed both the vocal and facial portions of the Emotion Recognition Index. Preliminary analyses revealed the highest accuracy rate (98.33%) for positive emotions displayed through facial expressions while positive emotions displayed through vocal cues yielded the lowest accuracy rate (40.56%). Negative emotions were most accurately detected through vocal cues (66.55%) followed by facial expressions (63.67%). Given the results of these accuracy scores, a factorial ANOVA was conducted for the interaction of affect valence and nonverbal channel. An interaction effect was found accounting for 40% of the variance in emotion detection accuracy.