Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Psychol Sci. 2012;23(11):1417-24. doi: 10.1177/0956797612445317. Epub 2012 Sep 27.
Can humans communicate emotional states via chemical signals? In the experiment reported here, we addressed this question by examining the function of chemosignals in a framework furnished by embodied social communication theory. Following this theory, we hypothesized that the processes a sender experiences during distinctive emotional states are transmitted to receivers by means of the chemicals that the sender produces, thus establishing a multilevel correspondence between sender and receiver. In a double-blind experiment, we examined facial reactions, sensory-regulation processes, and visual search in response to chemosignals. We demonstrated that fear chemosignals generated a fearful facial expression and sensory acquisition (increased sniff magnitude and eye scanning); in contrast, disgust chemosignals evoked a disgusted facial expression and sensory rejection (decreased sniff magnitude, target-detection sensitivity, and eye scanning). These findings underline the neglected social relevance of chemosignals in regulating communicative correspondence outside of conscious access.
人类可以通过化学信号传达情绪状态吗？在本实验中，我们通过考察化学信号在具身社会沟通理论所提供的框架中的功能来回答这个问题。根据这一理论，我们假设发送者在独特情绪状态中经历的过程通过发送者产生的化学物质传递给接收者，从而在发送者和接收者之间建立多层次的对应关系。在一项双盲实验中，我们研究了对化学信号的面部反应、感觉调节过程和视觉搜索。我们证明，恐惧化学信号产生了恐惧的面部表情和感觉获取（增加了嗅探幅度和眼球扫描）；相比之下，厌恶化学信号引起了厌恶的面部表情和感觉排斥（减少了嗅探幅度、目标检测灵敏度和眼球扫描）。这些发现强调了化学信号在调节意识之外的交际对应关系方面被忽视的社会相关性。
