Dancing With Feeling
A nearly 2,000-year-old Hindu text on the performing arts has opened
a new avenue of research into emotions. The ancient book, known as the
Natyasastra, describes nine primary emotions and how to express each of
them in Indian classical dance. Until now, researchers studying emotions
have mainly had volunteers assess pictures of facial expressions.
Natives of both the United States and India shown video tapes of these
dances identified the emotions accurately in two out of three trials, a
new study finds. Volunteers recognized displays of anger, disgust, fear,
and sadness, which some Western investigators have designated as the basic
emotions that occur in all cultures (SN: 9/19/98, p.190). Participants
also frequently discerned dance portrayals of humor-amusement, love, and
wonder; all emotions that have positive connotations.
These preliminary results suggest that "there may be more positive
basic emotions than have been previously recognized," conclude psychologist
Ahalya Hejmadi of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his
colleagues.
Hejmadi, who is experienced at classical Indian dance, performed three
brief versions of each of the Natyasastra '5 nine primary emotions: angel;
disgust, fear, heroism, humor-amusement, love, peace, sadness, and wonder.
He also acted out three versions of another emotion from Indian classical
dance that corresponds to shame or embarrassment. Indians view this emotion
in a positive light, unlike many Westerners. Finally, Hejmadi performed
15 emotionally neutral dance sequences.
A total of 48 U.S. college students, ages 8 to 25, and
47 Hindu Indians, ages 18 to 40, watched the videotaped performances in
random order. About half of the volunteers selected responses from a list
of the 10 emotions and a "neutral/no emotion" item. The rest wrote down
the word or words that they considered appropriate for each display.
Participants from both countries accurately identified emotions in
two-thirds of the cases when selecting from the list, Hejmadi's group reports
in the May PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE. They did nearly as well on written responses.
Several synonyms for each emotion counted as correct, such as accusing
and rage for anger, and amazed and wow for wonder.
On written responses, Indian volunteers more often detected portrayals
of sham embarrassment, peace, and heroism than U.S. students did. Those
emotions, at least when expressed in Indian classical dance, may have more
meaning for people exposed to Indian culture, the scientists suggest.
-B.B.