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The Effect of Social Presence on the Facial and Verbal Expression of Emotion and the Interrelationships Among Emotion Components

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Abstract

Women were videotaped while they spoke about a positive and a negative experience either in the presence of an experimenter or alone. They gave self-reports of their emotional experience, and the videotapes were rated for facial and verbal expression of emotion. Participants spoke less about their emotions when the experimenter (E) was present. When E was present, during positive disclosures they smiled more, but in negative disclosures they showed less negative and more positive expression. Facial behavior was only related to experienced emotion during positive disclosure when alone. Verbal behavior was related to experienced emotion for positive and negative disclosures when alone. These results show that verbal and nonverbal behaviors, and their relationship with emotional experience, depend on the type of emotion, the nature of the emotional event, and the social context.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Primary Care Research and Development Centre, 5th Floor, Williamson Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Victoria Lee

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, UK

    Hugh Wagner

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  1. Victoria Lee
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  2. Hugh Wagner
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Correspondence to Victoria Lee.

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Lee, V., Wagner, H. The Effect of Social Presence on the Facial and Verbal Expression of Emotion and the Interrelationships Among Emotion Components. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 26, 3–25 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014479919684

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