How body language helps us understand other people’s emotions
keywords:
Perception of emotion / emotions from body movements / social interaction / mirror neurons / simulation theory
How body language helps us understand other people’s emotions
Social interaction is a complex phenomenon. When we want to know what our fellow human beings are feeling, we have various sources of information at our disposal. One major source is the human body and body language. By observing another person’s body language, we can infer not only what they are doing but also why they are doing it and even what they are feeling at the time. But how well can we really recognize emotions from movements? How do we manage to deduce other people’s feelings by observing their movements, and how does this ability differ from person to person? / more
On Mirror Neurons or Why it is Okay to be a Couch Potato
keywords:
emotions / empathy / mimicry / mirror neurons / posture
On Mirror Neurons or Why it is Okay to be a Couch Potato
Have you ever wondered why, when you see someone stretch out and yawn, suddenly, you start to feel drowsy and feel the urge to do the same? Or how about the tendency of people to copy each other’s postures? In social psychology this phenomenon is called postural mirroring. All this mimicking is the result of so-called mirror neurons in our brain. / more