Abstract
Emotion research has focused mainly on perception of static facial expressions. Other common emotional signals are provided by body language. We performed two experiments, investigating the influence of whole body expressions on perception of facial expressions and voice prosody. In the first experiment, we presented subjects with a compound stimulus, consisting of a (morphed) facial expression on an emotionally congruent or incongruent whole body expression. The task was to rate the facial expression. The data show a clear influence of the bodily emotion on the perception of the facial expression. In the second experiment we simultaneously presented a face-blurred whole body expression and a vocal utterance. Subjects were to rate the emotional tone of voice. Results indicate an influence of the body expression on the perception of the vocal prosody. Taken together the results provide evidence for body language as an important affective signal.