Influence of Emotional States on Emotion Recognition

Abstract

This paper focuses on the way one’s own emotional state influences the recognition of others’ emotions. Previous research indicates the effect of congruence between emotions experienced at the moment and evaluations of emotional stimuli. Our experimental study tested the hypotheses of the influence of emotional states on two aspects of emotion recognition, accuracy and sensitivity. We hypothesized that emotional state of the observer reduces accuracy and increases sensitivity. The study involved 69 participants divided into three groups. The baseline emotional state was assessed using a self-report measure. We used video clips with neutral, positive, and negative emotional content to induce different emotional states in each group. The accuracy and sensitivity of emotion recognition were measured using a test based on video samples of people's behavior in different situations. The results showed that the emotional state of the control group participants was rather “tense” and, therefore, different from neutral. However, our hypotheses were not supported: the groups with different induced emotional states did not exhibit any significant differences in the accuracy of emotion recognition. The control group demonstrated higher sensitivity. These preliminary results are discussed in the context of the issues of emotion recognition research (emotion induction, assessment of emotions, differentiation of emotional states and traits).