What is emotion recognition?

Emotion recognition means determining how someone else is feeling from their emotional expressions. Often this refers to facial expressions (e.g. smiling and frowning). We also get information about how someone is feeling from their vocal expressions (e.g. the sound of someone laughing, crying or screaming) or their body posture or movement.

Our research investigates how well people can recognise others' emotions from these signs, and how this varies across individuals. Research suggests that people who find it difficult to understand their own emotions (alexithymia) often struggle to recognise other people's emotions. Our work suggests that alexithymia may explain some of the emotion recognition difficulties in people with conditions like autism and eating disorders.