Nonverbal Synchrony as an Adaptation to Social Environments
How does people’s facial expressions affect each other during social interaction?
Thinking about traveling to a foreign country, or talking to a person from another place, what would you do to express yourself clearly? How do people use nonverbal coordination to adapt socially in which language may not be able to serve its optimal function?
To study this question, I created in lab a set of tasks that elicit emotions, and facilitate cooperation. Using automated facial and bodily analysis, I also developed state-of-the-art methods to measure and automated nonverbal synchrony.
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Zhao, F., Wood, A., Mutlu, B., & Niedenthal, P. (under revision). Facial expressive synchrony increases when communication through spoken language is prevented.
Wood, A., Lipson, J., Zhao, F., & Niedenthal, P. (in press) Forms and Functions of Affective Synchrony. In Ryan, M., Robinson, M., & Thomas, L.,(Eds) Embodied Psychology. Springer [preprint]