Can specific body movements change how you feel?
Moving your body with specific qualities, like lightness for happiness or suddenness for anger, can directly evoke or enhance those corresponding emotions.
Source
Emotion Regulation through Movement: Unique Sets of Movement Characteristics are Associated with and Enhance Basic Emotions
What they did
The researchers recruited 80 movement professionals and students trained in Laban Movement Analysis to perform specialized movement sequences. These participants executed 40 different movement motifs developed from expert analyses of emotional video clips. After moving, participants rated which emotion they felt and measured its intensity on a scale of 1-5.
What they found
The results showed that 20 out of the 29 coded movement elements significantly predicted specific feelings. For instance, happiness was predicted by light, free, and rhythmic movements, while sadness was predicted by passive weight, sinking, and looking down. The findings show that a person does not need to perform every movement characteristic to trigger an emotion, as just a few key elements can be enough.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This study does not demonstrate how untrained, everyday people would respond to these movements, as all 80 participants had formal movement training. Additionally, because the motifs were designed from short clips of actors portraying exaggerated emotions, it does not show how subtle or spontaneous daily movements affect feelings. Finally, the design cannot prove how long these emotional changes last or if they can successfully help clinical patients.
Key terms
- Laban Movement Analysis (LMA)
- A comprehensive system and language used to describe, document, and analyze human movement across categories like Body, Effort, Shape, and Space.
- Motif
- A written symbolic representation used in movement analysis to instruct someone on how to execute specific movement qualities or sequences over time.
- Effort
- A category in movement analysis that describes the qualitative, dynamic aspects of movement, reflecting a person's inner attitude toward force, space, time, and flow.
- Shape
- A movement analysis category describing how the body alters its form and sculpts itself in space, such as expanding, condensing, rising, or sinking.
- Passive Weight
- A qualitative movement characteristic in which a person gives in to gravity with a limp, heavy quality, rather than actively exerting physical force.
- Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE)
- A statistical method used to analyze correlated data, such as when a single study participant provides multiple ratings across different tasks.
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Quiz yourself
Which theory suggests that sensory feedback from facial and postural movements significantly contributes to emotional experience?
Common questions
Do I have to do specific dances or routines to feel happier?
No, the study suggests you do not need to do a specific set dance; instead, you can incorporate happy movement qualities like lightness, upward directions, and rhythm into your regular daily activities, like walking or cleaning.
Why did the study only use participants trained in Laban Movement Analysis?
The researchers needed participants who could read motifs (symbolic movement scores) and execute precise qualities of movement, like bound flow or passive weight, without just mimicking another person.
Can these movements completely cure clinical depression or anxiety?
While the findings suggest movement could be a cheap and accessible tool for regulating emotions, this study did not test clinical populations, so we cannot conclude it serves as a standalone cure for clinical disorders.
Is there a movement that makes you feel both happy and sad at the same time?
The study found that opposite movement qualities distinguished opposite emotions, such as rising and lightness for happiness versus sinking and heavy passive weight for sadness, making them highly distinct and unlikely to overlap.
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