Vocal signals linked to emotions (e.g., laughter, screams) are in part conserved among phylogenetically related species, which may yield cross-species recognition of affective information

Is there phylogenetic continuity in emotional vocalizations? Roza Kamiloğlu, Katie E. Slocombe, Frank Eisner, Daniel B. M. Haun, Disa A. Sauter. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

Abstract: Vocal signals linked to emotions (e.g., laughter, screams) are in part conserved among phylogenetically related species. Such shared evolutionary roots of emotional vocalizations may yield cross-species recognition of affective information from vocalizations. We draw on two main approaches to phylogenetic continuity in emotional expressions, and test whether human listeners can identify 1) the context in which chimpanzee vocalizations were produced, and 2) core affect dimensions (arousal and valence) from chimpanzee vocalizations. In a laboratory experiment, participants (N = 310) listened to 155 chimpanzee vocalizations produced in 10 different behavioral contexts. Listeners judged the context in which they thought each vocalization was produced and indicated the extent to which they thought the individual who produced the vocalization was feeling negative/positive and aroused. The results show that listeners were able to accurately recognize the levels of arousal (high, medium, low) and valence (positive, negative) from the vocalizations, but not the production context. Judgments of arousal level and valence of vocalizations produced in negative contexts were more accurate compared to vocalizations of positive contexts. The greater crossspecies continuity in information transfer might be linked to evolutionary mechanisms that cross-species emotion recognition is more successful for negative contexts bearing high survival costs.

Links: https://osf.io/mkde8/?view_only=55c61b406eb44714bc723643ae7c94c0