Abstract Nonverbal behaviour (NVB) is a critical component of human communication, particularly in high-stakes, naturalistic settings such as sport. Despite advances in computational analysis, the extent to which objectively computable NVB features reflect subjective human judgments remains unclear. In this study, we present the inaugural investigation into the correspondence between computable NVB indicators and observer perceptions in the context of elite football. The utilisation of 3D pose data from a FIFA World Cup match enabled the extraction of volumetric, angular and kinematic features from players’ body movements during match events. Parallelly, human participants rated short video segments of these events on multiple NVB dimensions. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences in objective computable NVB indicators across play contexts (scoring, conceding, regular play), with players on the scoring team exhibiting more expansive and dynamic body language. Subjective ratings closely mirrored these differences, and repeated measures correlation analyses demonstrated strong associations between objectively computable NVB features and human judgments. These findings may provide a scientific basis for the use of 3D pose-based metrics for scalable, automated NVB analysis and may highlight their ecological validity in capturing expressive behaviours meaningful to human observers. The study has the potential to contribute to the advancement of methodological approaches for NVB research.

Despite the ubiquity of thin-slice coding for behavioral measurement, there exists relatively little systematic research into the convergent validity of thin-slice coding metrics for nonverbal behaviors when using human coders. This study utilized five previous datasets to measure four commonly-measured nonverbal behaviors (gaze, gestures, nods, smiles) using three different coding metrics (duration, frequency, rating) coded in 2 or 3 min slices. Convergent validity was measured by comparing a given behavior coded with at least two different metrics. Meta-analytic assessments across studies, behaviors, and metrics indicated strong convergent validity for various metrics for each behavior. Results provide confidence to researchers on the validity of using these thin-slice coding metrics for nonverbal behaviors.

There appears to be no attempt to categorize the specific classes of behavior that the tactile system underpins. Awareness of how an organism uses touch in their environment informs understanding of its versatility in non-verbal communication and tactile perception. This review categorizes the behavioral functions underpinned by the tactile sense, by using three sources of data: (1) Animal data, to assess if an identified function is conserved across species; (2) Human capacity data, indicating whether the tactile sense can support a proposed function; and (3) Human impaired data, documenting the impacts of impaired tactile functioning (e.g., reduced tactile sensitivity) for humans. From these data, three main functions pertinent to the tactile sense were identified: Ingestive Behavior; Environmental Hazard Detection and Management; and Social Communication. These functions are reviewed in detail and future directions are discussed with focus on social psychology, non-verbal behavior and multisensory perception.

Theoretical accounts and extant research suggest that people use various sources of information, including sensorimotor simulation and social context, while judging emotional displays. However, the evidence on how those factors can interplay is limited. The present research tested whether social context information has a greater impact on perceivers’ smile judgments when mimicry is experimentally restricted. In Study 1, participants watched images of affiliative smiles presented with verbal descriptions of situations associated with happiness or politeness. Half the participants could freely move their faces while rating the extent to which the smiles communicated affiliation, whereas for the other half mimicry was restricted via a pen-in-mouth procedure. As predicted, smiles were perceived as more affiliative when the social context was polite than when it was happy. Importantly, the effect of context information was significantly larger among participants who could not freely mimic the facial expressions. In Study 2 we replicated this finding using a different set of stimuli, manipulating context in a within-subjects design, and controlling for empathy and mood. Together, the findings demonstrate that mimicry importantly modulates the impact of social context information on smile perception.

In computer-mediated communication, small graphical icons (emojis) can be used to compensate for the lack of nonverbal cues such as facial expressions or hand gestures. Accordingly, literature suggests that the use of emojis may also be subject to social norms—similar to nonverbal behavior in face-to-face interactions. However, actual empirical investigations into this assumption remain lacking. To remedy this research gap, I explored whether traditional norms of appropriate emotional intensity and reciprocity also apply to emoji usage. A first online experiment (N = 188) revealed that excessive emoji use in a first-contact scenario leads to diminished interpersonal outcomes, corresponding to the drawbacks of overly intense nonverbal displays in natural interactions. Proceeding to a different communicative stage, Experiment 2 (N = 242) explored nonverbal reciprocity with acquainted interaction partners. Inviting participants to reply to fictitious text messages (at varying levels of interpersonal intimacy), it was observed that stimulus messages containing more emojis also evoke stronger emoji use in return—indicating that principles of nonverbal attunement are in full effect during text-based online interactions.

The goal of the current research was to gain an understanding of people’s mental representations of an apologetic face. In Study 1, participants’ responses were used to generate visual templates of apologetic faces through reverse correlation (Study 1a, n = 121), and a new set of participants (Study 1b, n = 37 and 1c, n = 153) rated that image (group-level Classification Image, CI), as well as either the inverse image (group-level anti-CI in Study 1b) or base face (in Study 1c), on apology-related characteristics. Results demonstrated that people have a mental representation of an apologetic face, and that sadness is an important feature of this template. To examine similarities between mental representations of apologetic and sad faces, participants in Study 2 generated visual templates of sad faces using reverse correlation (Study 2a, n = 121). New participants (Study 2b, n = 162) were then randomly assigned to rate the averaged face, eyes, and mouths (group-level CIs) as well as the individual visual templates (individual-level CIs) generated from both studies for either how apologetic or sad they appeared. Visual templates of apologetic and sad faces were seen as apologetic, providing evidence of the prominence of sadness in mental representations of apology.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10919-022-00422-5.