Emotion Interpretation

In a 2004 study titled “Reading Nonverbal Cues to Emotions: The Advantages and Liabilities of Relationship Closeness, R. Weylin Sternglanz and Bella M. DePaulo examined the perception ability of close friends, not-so-close friends, and strangers in reading clearly-expressed emotions and concealed emotions. The obvious assumption was that increased personal familiarity would allow for greater ability to perceive emotion (246).
The method of the study involved half of the participants assigned as “senders” and the other half assigned as “judges.” The senders in one set were instructed to conceal their emotions in their description of an experience in which they felt a particular emotion, and in another set they were instructed to express their emotions clearly. During this time the judges watching video tapes without sound were asked to interpret the senders’ emotions divided between four different types of dyads: “a male sender and male judge; a female sender and female judge; a female sender and male judge; and a male sender and female judge.” All participants related six stories: happy, sad, and angry—first expressing their emotions openly and then concealing them. Manipulation checks were initiated in which senders rated the intensity of the emotion to ensure that the senders actually experienced the emotion (251-252).
The surprising result of the study was that while friends were able to more accurately interpret emotion when the emotion was positive and clearly expressed, friends were no better than strangers at correctly identifying emotion when the emotion was negative or concealed. “Strikingly, it was the closer friends who were especially inept at identifying concealed negativity. They even tended to be a shade worse than strangers at seeing the disguised sadness and anger” (248).
The authors suggest a hypothesis that close friends may be reluctant to notice negativity for fear that the perception of negative emotions may weaken a close relationship (260). Whatever the cause of the misinterpretation, there are indications that friendship and personal familiarity give no advantage in understanding facial expressions. “In fact, in many instances, people are no better than strangers at interpreting even their own videotaped facial expressions” (Ansfield 135).
. It does not matter if the viewer is personally familiar with the subject in my portraits because concealed emotion presented in the paintings gives equal opportunity to all participants. My work removes the tools of emotional interpretation by removing facial cues and dares the viewer to pursue emotional interpretation or specific appraisal of personality.


In this work (“Nellie” 2102, Oil on Canvas) the subject visually confronts the viewer through eye contact and body language. With hands on her hips she stares directly into the viewer’s eyes with a slight smile that could be interpreted either as hostility or congeniality. The light source that illuminates her from behind shadows but doesn’t hide her face, and the cool green background brings forward the warmth of the light on the forms in the front, revealing a sense of three-dimensionality and bringing the image to life. Representationally her likeness is captured in this piece, but personally knowing Nellie does not necessarily make the task of interpreting her concealed emotion any easier.