This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: New research from our Department of Psychology has revealed that children are far more likely than adults to judge a person's emotions by what they hear rather than what they see. The study found that when children are shown someone expressing one emotion through their body language while making a sound that conveys a different emotion, they overwhelmingly trust the sound they hear.
Adults, however, are much more likely to rely on visual information such as body language or show no clear preference between the two. The findings reveal that children and adults can come to completely different conclusions about how a person is feeling, even when watching and listening to exactly the same interaction. The study is published in the journal Infant and Child Development.
Our researchers tested 164 participants, including children ages 4 to 11 and adults. Participants watched short video clips showing people expressing emotions through body movements, paired with emotional sounds such as laughter, cries, screams or angry vocalizations. Sometimes the body language and sounds matched.
Other times, they conflicted. For example, participants might see a fearful body movement paired with a happy laugh. When the cues matched, all age groups recognized emotions accurately.
But when the cues conflicted, children consistently based their judgment on the emotion they heard rather than the emotion they saw. The findings build on previous research showing that children often prioritize auditory information over visual information when processing the world around them. The new study demonstrates that this difference also affects how children understand emotions and social interactions.
Researchers believe this could have important implications for education, health care and other environments designed for children. The work suggests that adults may sometimes focus heavily on visual environments, such as colorful classroom displays or brightly decorated children's hospital wards, while overlooking the emotional impact of sounds. The findings also highlight the importance of tone of voice when communicating with children.
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