Validation of the Emotionally Congruent and Incongruent Face-Body Static Set (ECIFBSS).

Abstract

Frequently, we perceive emotional information through multiple channels (e.g., face, voice, posture). These cues interact, facilitating emotional perception when congruent (similar across channels) compared to incongruent (different). Most previous studies on this congruency effect used stimuli from different sets, compromising their quality. In this context, we created and validated a new static stimulus set (ECIFBSS) featuring 1952 facial and body expressions of basic emotions in congruent and incongruent situations. We photographed 40 actors expressing facial emotions and body postures (anger, disgust, happiness, neutral, fear, surprise, and sadness) in both congruent and incongruent situations. The validation was conducted in two parts. In the first part, 76 participants performed a recognition task on facial and bodily expressions separately. In the second part, 40 participants performed the same recognition task, along with an evaluation of four features: intensity, authenticity, arousal, and valence. All emotions (face and body) were well recognized. Consistent with the literature, facial emotions were recognized better than body postures. Happiness was the most recognized facial emotion, while fear was the least. Among body expressions, anger had the highest recognition, while disgust was the least accurately recognized. Finally, facial and bodily expressions were considered moderately authentic, and the evaluation of intensity, valence, and arousal aligned with the dimensional model. The ECIFBSS offers static stimuli for studying facial and body expressions of basic emotions, providing a new tool to explore integrating emotional information from various channels and their reciprocal influence.