DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

INVESTIGATING HEART RATE AND PERCEPTION OF HAPPINESS IN

OTHERS

STUDENT NUMBER: XXXXXXX

COURSE: M.Sc. Psychology

MSc Psychology
DATE:

May 2023
WORD COUNT: 1965
 INVESTIGATING HEART RATE AND PERCEPTION OF HAPPINESS IN
OTHERS.

Emotions play an important role in people’s lives. They influence our behaviour and

physiological states (Nummenmaa et al., 2013), including skin conductance, muscle tension,

and heart rate (Levenson et al., 1990). Anger, fear, disgust, sadness, surprise, and happiness

are considered the basic emotions (Sauter et al., 2010).

As emotions influence our heart rate, a growing body of research is examining the

correlation between the two. Studies (Wu et al., 2019; Steptoe & Wardle, 2005) have found

that people with lower heart rates tend to be happier, while people with higher heart rates

tend to experience more anger. More specifically, experiencing positive emotions seems to

decrease the heart rate (Steptoe & Wardle, 2005).

However, it is currently unclear whether or not there are any links between one’s own

resting heart rate and the perception of happiness/anger in others, which is a fascinating and

important topic. It may tell us more about how we perceive others in general and if people

with lower or higher heart rates, who are presumably happier or angrier, find it easier or

harder to form relationships due to their different perceptions of emotions in others.

Due to this gap in knowledge, this study tried to answer if differences in heart rate

coincide with differences in perception of emotion. To answer this question, simple

physiological data (resting heart rate) and ratings of emotions expressed in photographs of

faces were collected from the participants.

The rated emotions were happiness, anger, fear, and sadness. As a study by Ebner et

al. (2010) has shown that people tend to be more accurate in identifying the emotion of

happiness than any other emotion that was included in the study, this research will focus on

people’s perception of happiness in others, which should be easy to identify.

 Different heart rates correlate with experiencing different emotions (Steptoe &

Wardle, 2005; Wu et al., 2019), therefore, the prediction of our study is that differences in

heart rate also coincide with differences in the perception of happiness in others.

Methods

Design

This quantitative study uses biopsychological research methods to collect data and a quasi-

experimental research design with two non-manipulated variables (resting heart rate and

happiness rating). The participants were assigned either to the lower heart rate group or the

higher heart rate group, depending on their natural resting heart rate. The two independent

samples (the lower heart rate group and the higher heart rate group) were asked to rate

people’s happiness levels based on their facial expressions on a 100-point scale, with 1 being

the lowest happiness rating and 100 being the highest.

Participants

MSc Psychology students from the University of Portsmouth have recruited two to three

participants each. As the students’ friends and acquaintances were recruited, the sample was a

convenience sample. All the participants were over the age of 18 and in reasonably good

health. Altogether, 48 participants from various countries were recruited, 16 male and 32

female. Fourteen participants were of age 18-29, seventeen of age 30-39, seven of age 40-49,

five of age 50-59, and five of age 60-69.

The participants were divided into two groups – a group of people with lower resting

heart rates and a group of people with higher resting heart rates. American Heart Association

considers a normal heart rate to be between 60 and 100 beats per minute (Avram et al., 2019).

As the mean value between 60 and 100 is 80, 80 was selected as the cut-off value between
lower heart rate and higher heart rate. There were 35 participants in the lower heart rate group

(˂ 80 BPM) and 13 participants in the higher heart rate group (≥ 80 BPM).

Materials

Participants were required to have access to an internet-connected device, such as a computer

or tablet. Doing the survey on a mobile phone was discouraged, as it was important for the

participants to see photographs of faces on the device screen clearly. We used the Gorilla

Experiment Builder. The Gorilla survey included a Participant Information Sheet, an

Informed Consent Form, a timer that helped participants measure their heartbeat for 15

seconds, 36 portrait photographs of faces with different facial expressions taken from the

FACES database (Ebner et al., 2010), and a slider bar for each photograph to assess a

particular stated emotion from 1 (least intense) to 100 (most intense).

Procedure

The link for the Gorilla survey was shared with each participant privately along with a

recruitment message, which explained that the research takes the form of a brief, online

study, that it is about how we read emotions in people’s faces and that it will take

approximately 20 minutes. Participants were asked to wait for at least 30 minutes after

completing any strenuous physical activity before beginning the study.

In order to protect the well-being of the participants, all participants were given a

Participant Information Sheet before they agreed to participate in the study. Willing

participants also provided informed consent to participate in the study in advance. Moreover,

they were informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time. Ethical approval

was granted for this study. See the ethical form in Appendix 1.
 The participants were asked to sit down and relax for three minutes and then record

their resting heart rate by finding the pulse in the wrist or neck, using two fingers, and

counting the beats for 15 seconds. Next, they were asked to enter the total number of

heartbeats they felt during this time.

Afterwards, the participants proceeded to the next phase of the study, where they were

shown a series of 36 faces and asked to rate the intensity of emotion in a person’s face.

Participants were asked to rate four emotions – happiness, anger, fear, and sadness. However,

in this study, the focus is entirely on happiness ratings (see why in the Introduction). Other

emotions were included to avoid demand characteristics, which may occur if the participants

guess the aim of the study and intentionally or subconsciously adjust their answers to meet

this aim.

Finally, the participants were requested to provide basic demographic information

before finishing the survey and asked if they agree for their data to be submitted to the study.

Data Analysis

The full data set was presented in a document that included the participants’ demographic

information, the number of heartbeats in 15 seconds, the calculated number of heart rates per

minute, and the mean happiness rating for each participant, which was calculated based on

the several happiness ratings they gave. Each participant was allocated into a heart rate group.

See how in the Participants section above.

An independent samples t-test was conducted in JASP to determine whether

differences in heart rate coincide with differences in the perception of happiness in others.

The mean happiness ratings were selected as the dependent variable and the heart rate groups

as the grouping variable. Both the Student and Welch tests were conducted, as well as the

assumptions tests of normality (the Shapiro-Wilk test) and equality of variances (Levene’s
test). The test was non-directional or two-tailed, as the alternative hypothesis is that group 1

does not equal group 2 (regardless of the direction).

Certain additional statistics were also checked, including location parameter with a

95% confidence interval (95% CI), Cohen’s d effect size (d), and descriptive statistics, which

include the number of participants in each group, the mean happiness rating in each group

(M), and the standard deviation (SD), revealing how much the collected ratings vary from the

mean ratings of each group.

Results

Preliminary data screening showed that scores in both heart rate groups met the assumptions

of normality with a Shapiro-Wilks test (p = .07) and homogeneity of variance with the

Levene’s test (F = 1.84, p = .18). The fact that both assumptions were non-significant (the

significance level (p-value) of the tests was greater than .05, which is the typical alpha-level

set in psychology) suggests that the data are normally distributed and that variances of the

two samples are approximately equal. Therefore, it is safe to rely on the results of the

Student’s test. The test showed that there was a non-significant difference in the perception of

happiness between people with higher heart rates (M = 84.54, SD = 7.26) and people with

lower heart rates (M = 86.40, SD = 9.25); t(46) = 0.65, p = 0.52, 95% CI [-3.88, 7.6], d =

0.21.

Table 1: Means and Standard Deviations of Happiness Ratings (1-100) of the Low and High
Heart Rate Groups

The results of the t-test indicate that people with lower heart rates (n1 = 35) perceive others

as happier than people with higher heart rates (n2 = 13) (see table 1). However, the mean

difference is very small (1.862). The p-value over 0.05 tells us that the difference between
groups is actually non-significant (see figure 1). The fact that the confidence interval crosses

0 additionally supports the non-significant result. Moreover, Cohen’s d result of 0.21 is

considered a small effect size (Lakens, 2013). These results indicate that there is no

significant difference in perception of happiness between people with lower heart rates and

higher heart rates. The null hypothesis is retained.

Figure 1: Mean Happiness Ratings

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are any links between own resting heart

rate and the perception of emotion in others and the prediction was that differences in heart

rate coincide with differences in the perception of happiness in others. Based on the results,

this non- directional hypothesis must be rejected, as the difference between the two groups

was non- significant. The null hypothesis that there is no significant difference must be

retained.

Differences in heart rates seem to correlate with experiencing different emotions

(Steptoe & Wardle, 2005; Wu et al., 2019). However, based on our findings, differences in
heart rate do not coincide with differences in perception of happiness, which indicates that

heart rate is not a critical factor in the perception of happiness in others.

If differences in heart rate actually do coincide with differences in perception of joy

and the effect wasn’t spotted, a potential reason may be the limited sample size. Our sample

size was too small (less than 30 participants per sample) and the statistical power of the

study, which is defined as the likelihood of demonstrating an effect, if it exists, and not

making a Type II error (Coolican, 2019, p. 458), too low to get a significant result.

Another potential limitation of this study may be the fact that we used a convenience

sample. However, as the participants were both male and female, of different ages (ranging

from the age group of 18-29 to 60-69), and from different countries, our participant selection

should not have played a major role in skewing the results. Moreover, as research suggests

that people across different cultures recognize the same emotions when shown a standard set

of facial photographs (for example, smiling has been shown to be universally recognised as a

visual sign of happiness) (Ekman et al., 1969, p. 86), the fact that our participants have

different cultural and linguistic backgrounds should not have been an issue.

The results could have been distorted if the participants guessed the aim of the study,

however, as they were asked to rate several non-analysed emotions, it is unlikely. Extreme

heart rates (e.g. 44 and 120) could also be a confounding variable and could skew our results.

We could cut them out by reporting interquartile ranges (IQR), however, this would further

decrease our already limited sample size and statistical power of the study. Further research

with larger samples that could eliminate extreme cases is needed to verify these results and

thus enhance the field of study.

Perception of happiness in others likely depends on many psychological traits, which

could be correlated with certain physiological states. However, based on the results of this
study, heart rate is not something that can give us much insight into how we perceive joy in

others.

References

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