TY - JOUR
T1 - The sound of the crowd
T2 - Auditory information modulates the perceived emotion of a crowd based on bodily expressions
AU - McHugh, Joanna
AU - Kearney, Gavin
AU - Rice, Henry
AU - Newell, Fiona
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - Although both auditory and visual information can influence the perceived emotion of an individual, how these modalities contribute to the perceived emotion of a crowd of characters was hitherto unknown. Here, we manipulated the ambiguity of the emotion of either a visual or auditory crowd of characters by varying the proportions of characters expressing one of two emotional states. Using an intersensory bias paradigm, unambiguous emotional information from an unattended modality was presented whilst participants determined the emotion of a crowd in an attended, but different, modality. We found that emotional information in an unattended modality can disambiguate the perceived emotion of a crowd. Moreover, the size of the crowd had little effect on these crossmodal influences. The role of audiovisual information appears to be similar in perceiving emotion from individuals or crowds. Our findings provide novel insights into the role of multisensory influences on the perception of social information from crowds of individuals.
AB - Although both auditory and visual information can influence the perceived emotion of an individual, how these modalities contribute to the perceived emotion of a crowd of characters was hitherto unknown. Here, we manipulated the ambiguity of the emotion of either a visual or auditory crowd of characters by varying the proportions of characters expressing one of two emotional states. Using an intersensory bias paradigm, unambiguous emotional information from an unattended modality was presented whilst participants determined the emotion of a crowd in an attended, but different, modality. We found that emotional information in an unattended modality can disambiguate the perceived emotion of a crowd. Moreover, the size of the crowd had little effect on these crossmodal influences. The role of audiovisual information appears to be similar in perceiving emotion from individuals or crowds. Our findings provide novel insights into the role of multisensory influences on the perception of social information from crowds of individuals.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864341465&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/a0024785
DO - 10.1037/a0024785
M3 - Article
VL - 12
SP - 120
EP - 131
JO - Perception
JF - Perception
SN - 0301-0066
IS - 1
ER -