Language is just as important as expressions when reading someone's emotions, study shows

Language is as important as expressions when reading emotion, a study has found -- meaning that being told someone looks'grumpy' can makes them seem grumpier. Researchers from Australia and the US asked volunteers to rate the emotions of people in either photographs or videos. The team found that when the participants were told that the subjects were feeling a specific emotion, this biased how they interpreted the expressions on show. The effect was most pronounced when dealing with angry, sad or scared faces -- as opposed to happy, disgusted, embarrassed, proud or surprised -- the team found. Language is as important as expressions when reading emotion, a study has found -- meaning that being told someone looks'grumpy' can makes them seem grumpier (stock image) 'The current studies demonstrate that language context alters the dimensional affective foundations that underlie our judgements of others' expressions,' the researchers wrote in their paper.