Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. School of Music Studies
Abstract
The goal of this study was to examine the effect of two basic emotions, happiness and sadness, on free movement. A total of 32 adult participants took part in the study. Following an emotion induction procedure intended to induce emotional states of happiness or sadness by means of music and guided imagery, participants moved to an emotionally neutral piece of music that was composed for the experiment. Full body movement was captured using motion caption. In order to explore whether differences in corporeal articulations between the two conditions existed, several movement cues were examined. The criteria for selection of these cues was based on Effort-Shape. Results revealed that in the happy condition, participants showed faster and more accelerated body movement. Moreover, movements proved to be more expanded and more impulsive in the happy condition. These findings provide evidence of the effect of emotion induction as related to body movement
