Understanding the Relation Between Emotion and Physical Movements

Abstract

We present two experiments to understand the relation between the attributes of physical movement and emotional elicitation. For the experiments, we developed a physical movement generation device. Four attributes of physical movement, speed, smoothness, granularity, and volume, were identified from the review of existing theories. These attributes were used as control parameters in our study. We used the affective grid with pleasure and arousal to identify the relation between the types of physical movement and specific emotions. The results demonstrated that physical movement can easily evoke some areas of emotion. In particular, it was found that emotions in both pleasure and arousal dimension were positively correlated with speed. Finally, we discuss the implications of the results and how physical movement can enhance emotional qualities in the design of interactive products.