For all the importance we place on words, whether spoken or written, much of the communicating we do regularly comes through body language. According to pioneering research by Dr. Albert Mehrabian, only 7 percent of the meaning we get from human communication comes from the actual spoken words used. An additional 38 percent comes from tone of voice while a large 55 percent comes from body language alone.
Researchers have long identified that certain kinds of body movements and facial expressions can communicate information about the emotions we happen to be experiencing at the time. But are these emotional signals shaped by different cultures or are they universal to all humans?
A new research article published in the journal Emotion attempts to answer this question through a cross-cultural study. The researchers traveled to Ratanakini, Cambodia to study members of a distant Kreung hill tribe (部落). Living in Cambodia's highlands, the Kreung are still largely remote from the outside world except for occasional visitors. They have yet to be assimilated (被同化) as many other societies have been.
In the study, a set of videos were prepared featuring an American woman, displaying three positive emotions (happiness, love, and pride) and three negative emotions (anger, fear, and sadness) using body language alone. The effectiveness of these videos was tested using thirty-four American participants. The videos were then presented to twenty-six Kreung individuals (eleven of whom were female). They were asked to describe the emotions being displayed in their own words.
Results showed that the Kreung participants tended to be quite accurate in guessing which emotions were being presented. The overall accuracy rate was sixty-two percent though their accuracy in detecting specific emotions such as anger and happiness was far higher. Overall, there was no significant discrepancy between Kreung and American raters in detecting emotions, though American participants did much better in detecting pride and love.
Still, the study does suggest that body movements can express emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, and love even for individuals belonging to different cultures. Emotional signals reflect basic human needs and desires that all humans share. Learning more about how basic biology and social factors shape the way we communicate may well be essential in helping to understand ourselves better.
