Perception of emotion in the facial expressions and body language of athletes

Facial expressions are commonly believed to reliably convey emotional information, but some research suggests that people are better at perceiving emotions through body language. We hypothesized that individuals’ emotional perception would improve when body imagery was presented, relative to viewing the face alone. Following musical mood induction, participants were shown images of winning and losing tennis players that were cropped to show either (a) only the face, (b) only the body, or (c) both the face and the body, before rating each player’s perceived level of arousal and emotional experience. Results showed there was a reciprocal emotional rating effect for face imagery, with participants mistakenly rating losing faces as experiencing more positive emotion than winning faces did; when body imagery was shown along with the face, participants’ emotional perception was more accurate. Significant gender differences were observed in ratings of female versus male players. Our study indicates that without further context, emotional perception is unreliable from the face alone. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.