"An individual's gait can reveal their emotional state from a distance, enabling social decision-making - such as whether to approach or avoid them - before their facial expressions become visible. While facial expressions can be consciously controlled, gait represents a spontaneous and habitual motor behaviour that may provide reliable cues for one's internal emotional state."
"Angry gait involves exaggerated arm swings, whereas sad and fearful gaits involve reduced arm movement. Sad walks showed a 'smaller vertical bounce' than angry walks, with one of the main factors that helped people determine emotion being how large the arm movements were."
Researchers from Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International conducted experiments demonstrating that emotional states are detectable through walking patterns. Fast gaits with swinging arms indicate anger, while sad walks feature slouched shoulders, minimal arm movement, and slow speed. Happy individuals display a noticeable bounce in their stride. The study used motion capture technology to record actors expressing five emotions—angry, happy, fear, neutral, and sad—while walking. Participants viewing these videos accurately identified emotions by analyzing arm and leg movements, walking speed, and vertical bounce. Arm movement size proved particularly significant, with angry gaits showing exaggerated swings and sad or fearful gaits displaying reduced movement. Gait provides spontaneous, habitual motor behavior cues that are difficult to consciously control, making them reliable indicators of internal emotional states.
Read at Mail Online
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