Nonverbal Communication of Pride

This line of research, led by Zak Witkower, is systematically tracking the sequential steps involved in the nonverbal communication of pride, beginning with an experiencer’s subjective experience, including his/her nonverbal communication of that experience, and ending with an observer’s perception of the target’s emotion. Although decoders can not differentiate between authentic and hubristic pride from decontextualized photos, they can do so if: (a) they are provided with contextual information about the emotional display (Tracy & Prehn, 2012; Witkower& Barlett, in prep), or (b) they are shown a dynamic display intended to depict a specific form of pride (Nelson & Russell, 2011; Lange & Crusius, 2015). However, it remains unclear whether individuals experiencing each form of pride naturally display distinct behaviors. The goal of this research is to assess whether there are any differences in the nonverbal cues individuals use in the encoding and decoding of authentic and hubristic pride.