Interacting Bodies and Interacting Minds. The case of Emotions

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Interacting Bodies and Interacting Minds.The
case of Emotions

• Isabella Poggi
• Dipartimento di Scienze dellEducazione
• Università Roma Tre
• poggi_at_uniroma3.it
• Lyon 15-18 June 2005

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Outline

• 1. Emotion and communication
• 2. Communication and Expression of emotions
• 3. Emotions from mind to mind
• 4. Contagion and Empathy
• 5. Induction of emotions, persuasion, and
  deception
• 6. Conclusion

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1. Emotion and communication
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• Research on multimodal communication has
  overviewed the multifaceted possibilities of our
  body to convey information about the world, our
  beliefs, goals, emotions, identity.
• But body behaviour shows many different levels of
  intentionality and consciousness.
• This work proposes a set of criteria
• to distinguish communication from non
  communication,
• to define different ways in which information
  passes from mind to mind.
• It focuses on a particular domain the
  communication of emotions

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2.Communication and Expression of Emotions
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2.1. Communication A general definitionA has
the Goal G to cause B to believe belief KIn
order to this goal, A produces a signal s that A
believes is linked to belief K, in both As and
Bs minds, in terms of a Communication Siystem CS
Internal Goals External
Goals

• CONSCIOUS
• A is angry at B and tells him I am angry at
  you
• UNCONSCIOUS
• A does not want to show he is angry at B but
  inadvertently pulls a long face while staying
  with B
• TACIT
• A emphasizes the comment of his discourse with a
  higher vocal intensity

• BIOLOGICAL FUNCTION
• The sticklebacks reddened abdomen
• Human blushing
• SOCIAL FUNCTION
• The nurses dress
• piercing
• ARTIFACT FUNCTION
• The gasoline red light

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2.2Communication of emotions a strict and a
broad definition

• STRICT
• A feels an emotion E
• A has the goal G1 that B know A feels E
• A has the goal G2 that B know A has the goal G1
  that B know A feels E
• In order to goals G1 and G2, A produces a
  communicative signal CS of emotion E
• Prof. A, while seeing Prof.B, tells her Im
  glad to see you.

• BROAD
• A feels an emotion E
• A has the goal G1 that B know A feels E
• In order to goals G1, A produces a communicative
  signal CS of emotion E
• Prof. A, while seeing Prof. B, spontaneously
  smiles at her.

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2.3Expression of emotions

• A feels an emotion E and, driven by the
  physiological correlates of emotion E, produces a
  behavior (e.g. smokes avidly) or exhibits a
  morphological trait (gets pale), that is, an
  Expressive Signal ES
• Another Agent B, from this perceivable ES, can
  come to believe that A is feeling Emotion E

• Egocentric
• Emotional expression is only aimed at giving vent
  to the emotion itself, at relieving A from too
  high an arousal, but not to let another Agent
  believe that A is feeling that emotion
• A is alone, she is very angry and to give vent to
  her feeling smashes a glass on the floor

• Communicative
• Emotional expression is precisely aimed at having
  someone else believe that A is feeling an Emotion
• A is very angry at B, and to express her anger
  she smashes a glass on the floor

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2.4Communicative expression

• A type of communication
• On the Agents mind
• Agent not necessarily conscious of delivering the
  Emotional Signal
• Communicative goal
• Biological function, unconscious or tacit goal
• No meta-goal of communicating the goal of
  communicating

• Different from egocentric expression
• Not about the external world
• Not a sentence but, typically, a voice pitch, a
  smile, a grimace, a beat gesture, an
  interjection
• A blush, a tic, a beat gesture

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3Emotions from mind to mind
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3.Emotions from mind to mind

• An emotion is a subjective state a pleasant or
  unpleasant state that we feel within our body,
  and that, by definition, cannot be felt by any
  other person exactly in the same way we do feel
  it.
• So, an emotion can, and sometimes does, remain in
  our mind, but often it can pass through to other
  minds.
• We can feel an emotion and not communicate it we
  can communicate, but not emotions. Finally,
  people may know about our emotions they may
  even feel them also if we do not perform any
  communicative act.
• Emotions can flow from one mind to another in
  many ways
• Transmission Induction
  Expression
• Communication Contagion
  Empathy
• Obstentatious expression, Faked expression
• Simulation Masking
  Concealment

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3.1The flowing of emotions

• Transmission
• Induction
• Communication

E
E
E
E
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3.2Communication, Transmission, Induction

• An emotion is communicated when
• A produces an expressive signal ES in order to
  the goal that B believe A feels an emotion E
• An emotion is transmitted when
• A feels an emotion E
• and this causes that
• also B comes to feel emotion E
• But
• Transmission necessarily requires that A (really)
  feels an emotion
• In some cases, B comes to feel an emotion also if
  A does not
• An emotion is induced in B any time
• a belief about Agent A
• causes Agent B
• to feel an emotion E

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The belief that induces an emotion in B may
concern
3.3 The induction of emotions

• an event that occurs to A
• a feature of A
• an action of A
• a communicative action
• an emotion of A

• A stumbles and falls down ? B is worrried
• A is beautiful ? B falls in love with her
• A suddenly comes after B ? B is scared A does
  something funny ? B is amused
• A tell B che B won the contest ? B exults
• A tells B she is happy ? B is happy too

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3.4Induction as an effect,induction as a goal

• Action
• Communicative action
• Emotion

• EFFECT
• A inadvertedly does something funny ? B is amused
  
• A tells B that C got married, while not knowing B
  loves C ? B becomes sad
• A has a sad face and he does not know that B is
  seeing him ? B becomes sad

• GOAL
• A hides Bs purse to make him angry
• A tells a joke to B, to make him amused
• A shows his anger to make B afraid

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3.5Bs and As emotion

• Identical or Similar
• Reciprocal
• Complementary

• A communicates her joy to B to have B feel joy
  too.
• The teacher expresses her passion to a
  shooltopic, and the pupil start to feel interest
  in it
• A tells B that A likes B, in order to have B like
  A
• A tells B she is upset in order for B to feel
  pity of A
• A tells B she feels proud to make B feel envious

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4Contagion and Empathy
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4.1Emotional contagion

• Emotional Contagion is
• the induction of a similar emotion in B caused by
  the expression of an emotion by A
• Contagion occurs when
• The production of an expressive signal ES by A
  causes B to feel an emotion that is similar or
  identical to As 
• 1.     A feels E
• 2.     A produces a expressive signal SE of
  emotion E
• 3.     B perceives SE
• 4.     B produces SE
• 5.   B feels the same emotion as A or a similar
  one

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4.2Contagion as an effect or as a goal

• An undeliberate effect
• A goal

• While waiting for the exam, A walks up and down
  nervously, and B becomes nervous too
• The political journalist expresses his
  indignation with passion to have readers
  indignated too

• A and B may be conscious or not of feeling the
  emotion and of producing the signal
• A is conscious of producing the signal, and may
  deceive s/he may not really feel the emotion

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4.3Empathy

• Empathy is
• the induction in B of an emotion, due to Bs
  belief that A feels a similar or reciprocal
  emotion
• The belief that A feels an emotion E may come to
  B
• either from actual communication or expression
• or by inference (through reasoning or putting one
  in the others shoes)

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4.4Contagion vs. Empathy

• Necessary vs. non-necessary emotion expression
  and emotion feeling
• Whose emotion, whose goal

• Contagion requires that A (whether sincerely or
  not) express an emotion
• Bs Empathy does not require
• - that A express his emotion
• - that A feels (or pretends to feel) an emotion
• If A is acold and B is warm, B might anyway
  empathise
• In contagion, As emotion is functional to As
  goals, while Bs emotion is functional to Bs
  goals
• In panic , As panic is aimed at saving A, Bs
  panic at saving B
• In Empaty, Bs emotion is functional to As
  goals
• If I am sad for my misfortune, when you empathize
  you are not sad for your but for my misfortune
• This is why Empathy may lead to Altruism

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5.The induction of Emotions,Persuasion,and
Deception
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5.Emotion induction, persuasion, and deception

• We often want to induce emotions in others
  because emotions have a strong motivating effect,
  that is, they induce to action.
• Social influence and persuasion often exploit
  emotion induction.
• When emotion induction is deliberately aimed at
  persuasion, and when it in its turn depends on
  our emotion display, we may need to display also
  emotions we dont feel, or not to let others know
  how much we want want to display our emotions.
• Moreover, to induce emotions more effectively, we
  must not show we want to induce emotions.
  Therefore, to induce an emotion in B while not
  letting B know about my emotion, sometimes A must
  pretend to feel emotions she does not feel or
  pretend she does not want to communicate her
  emotions

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5.1Deceptive emotion expression

• Obstentatious expression of an emotion
• A feels an emotion, wants B to know it, but does
  not want B to know A wants B to know this so A
  pretends her expression to be spontaneous and not
  deliberate, but wants to be sure that B will
  perceive it
• Expression of a faked emotion
• A is not feeling an emotion, but pretends she is
  feeling it and expresses it through its typical
  expressive signal

• To induce B to do something, A wants him to feel
  guilty so A pretends she does not know B is
  seeing her, and she silently cries
• Mother feels tenderness for her childs pranks,
  but she pretends to be angry, to prevent him to
  do it again

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5.2To deceive about emotions

• Emotion Simulation
• A does not feel an emotion, but wants B to
  believe he does, so he produces a communicative
  signal of that emotion (display rules, Ekman
  1978).
• Emotion Masking
• A feels an emotion, but wants B to believe he
  feels another emotion, so he produces the
  corresponding signal
• Emotion Concealment
• A deos not want B to knwo he feels a certain
  emotion, so he inhibits its expressive signals
• Questi casi possono ben avere uno scopo di
  induzione, ed eventualmente un ulteriore scopo di
  influenzamento.

• A shows sad at the funeral of an acquaintance
• Professor A hates her colleague, but when she
  meets her, she smiles to her
• Ekmans poker face to show impassible
• Professor A meets a colleague she hates, but she
  dissimulates her hostility
• A hides her being afraid of B, so B does not know
  how much power he has over A

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6.Conclusion

• Our bodies, beside referential contents, very
  importantly convey emotions to each other.
• But it is very important to distinguish when our
  emotions are consciously or unconsciously
  transimitted, induced, received by other people,
  when they are faked or masked, and when and why
  we come to feel them through empathy or contagion