DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

THE INFLUENCE OF HEART RATE ON THE PERCEPTION OF ANGER

STUDENT NUMBER: XXXXXXX

COURSE: M.Sc. Psychology

MSc Psychology
DATE:

May 2023
WORD COUNT: 1936
 THE INFLUENCE OF HEART RATE ON THE PERCEPTION OF ANGER.

Emerging research has found that cardiac activities influence our affective processes in

surprisingly profound ways. Studies of the heart rate in particular have given scientists new

insights into how we experience certain emotions (Wascher, 2021). The emotion of anger in

specific has been of special interest to researchers when it comes to investigating the

relationship between heart rate and emotions. The reason for anger to be under the

microscope can partly be attributed to the fact that observing anger has been found to be

significantly more arousing for the observer than watching happy or neutral expressions

(Vasara & Surakka, 2021). This characteristic has inevitably led it to become the most

extensively investigated emotional construct of the past decade (Eckhardt & Deffenbacher,

1995) as it is the ideal emotion for research studies such as ours.

Previously, a correlation has been established between a high heart rate and an intense

experience of anger (Wu et al., 2019). There is, however, a significant discrepancy in the

knowledge when it comes to establishing whether individuals with high heart rates perceive

anger more intensely as well. The issue of drawing parallels between the experience of an

emotion and its perception has consistently remained an unclear and debatable topic in the

literature of affective neuroscience (Sorella et al., 2021). There are various reasons why it is

plausible to speculate that the perception of emotion is similar, if not identical, to the

experience of that emotion. One important reason is the existence of the Mirror Neuron

System (MNS) which dictates that the circuits activated when observing emotions in others

are the same as when experiencing those emotions ourselves (Bastiaansen et al., 2009; Juckel

et al., 2018). Thus, the same emotional state is produced in the observer as in the observed

person (Catmur et al., 2009). Hence, it implies that individuals experiencing anger intensely
will perceive it in an identical fashion. This implication serves as the foundational basis of

our research.

Bearing in mind the standard interpretation of MNS, this study aims at filling vital

gaps in the knowledge of emotion experience and perception by investigating if the

differences in heart rate coincide with the difference in the perception of emotion. This is

achieved by asking individuals with low and high heart rates to rate the emotions of the faces

shown to them. It is hypothesized that the difference in heart rate would concur with a

difference in the perception of anger. Relative to the group with low heart rates, we expect

that the participants with high heart rates would rate anger more highly in the task involved in

this study.

Methods

Design

Informed by bio-psychological theories of emotion perception, this quantitative study utilized

a quasi-experimental research design. The study was designed using the Gorilla software so

that it could be completed entirely online and did not require the researcher to be present with

the participant.

Participants

Each researcher recruited 2 to 3 participants for this study by sending them a link to the

questionnaire. The intended sample size was achieved within two weeks. In total, 48

participants completed the task, out of which 32 were female and 16 were male. All

participants belonged to the age bracket of 18 to 69, with 14 being in the age range of 19-29;

17 in 30-39; 7 in 40-49; 5 in 50-59; and 5 in 60-69.

 All participants met the criteria for being a part of this study: being 18 years old or

above; having reasonably good health; having internet and computer access; not being

engaged in an exercise in the last 30 minutes; and lastly, giving informed consent.

Furthermore, each participant was provided with an information sheet at the beginning of the

study which outlined key information such as the participation in this study is completely

voluntary; participants have the right to withdraw from the study up until the point of

submission; there is no option to withdraw information after submission, and data collection

is anonymous.

Materials

For our research to be of value, it was imperative to make sure that the facial expressions

being used to stimulate emotions in the observer were accurate and valid. Therefore, all

images shown to the participants were taken from the database of FACES, which contains

validated; high-quality; naturalistic expressions of young, middle-aged, and older women and

men (Holland et al., 2018; Ebner et al., 2010). In total 36 images were used out of which

twelve of the faces displayed a neutral expression; twelve displayed a happy expression;

twelve displayed an angry expression, and twelve displayed a fearful expression.

Despite our sole interest in how anger was perceived, happiness; fear; and sadness

were also included to be rated. The rationale behind this was to prevent the contamination of

the results through the demand characteristics. Hence, by including all four universal

emotions (Ekman et al., 1980; Sauter et al., 2010), the participants were prevented from

figuring out the crux of the study and (consciously or subconsciously) letting it affect their

ratings.
Procedure

With the initial intention to be a part of the study, the participants opened the link which took

them to the information sheet. The end of the information sheet took them to the Informed

consent page they were asked for their consent to continue or withdraw.

If they consented to continue, they were taken to the page which presented the

instructions on how to record their resting heart rate. This included a request for them to have

their device visibly clear, be seated in a chair, and relax for three minutes. After they had

relaxed and the three-minute timer was over on the screen, they were asked to find their pulse

in their wrist using just two fingers. Once found, they were to press the 15-second timer on

the computer and count the number of heartbeats they could feel in those 15 seconds. At the

end of the timer, they entered the number of heartbeats they had counted. To provide us with

the exact resting heart rate, each participant’s number of heartbeats was multiplied by four

which gave us beats per minute.

After providing the number of heartbeats, participants subsequently entered the next

phase of the study. In this phase, participants were shown 36 faces that displayed either

happy, sad, angry, or fearful expressions. The images were randomly divided into three

blocks with 12 images each. For each image, the participant was supposed to rate two

emotions out of 100. For the angry face, the participant rated anger as well as either

happiness, sadness, or fear. For the happy face, the participant rated happiness as well as

either anger, sadness, or fear. One half of the neutral faces asked participants to rate

happiness and the other half asked them to rate anger along with sadness or fear. The faces

shown to the participants and the emotions they were asked to rate were in random order.

Once the participants rated all the images, they were asked if they would like to

submit their responses to be used as data for the study. If they answered in the affirmative the
study ended with their responses being added to the pool of data. If they answered no, the

study ended and all of their responses were deleted.

Data Analysis

In healthy adults, the resting heart rate mostly ranges between 60 to 70 beats per minute (Hori

& Okamoto, 2012; Herring & Paterson, 2012). Hence, any data below 60 was labeled as low

and any data above 70 was labeled as high. All the data between 60-70 was excluded from

the analysis. Furthermore, the mean anger ratings for the neutral faces were not utilized since,

according to MNS, a neutral face will not simulate any emotional state in the observer (angry

or otherwise), hence that data is of no use to us.

To determine the significance of any difference in mean anger ratings between the

two groups based on low and high heart rates, a Student’s T-test was used to compare the

means of two independent samples in JASP.

Results

The results from the t-test indicated that no significant difference was observed between the

mean anger ratings of the high heart rate group (M = 76.52, SD = 7.9) and low heart rate

group (M = 76.3, SD = 11.6) t (30) = 0.04, p = 0.96, 95% CI [-6.95, 7.2], d = 0.017.

The assumptions of the t-test were met. There was no deviation from normality as the

results of the Shapiro-Wilk Test were non-significant (p = 0.6 for high heart rate and p = 0.4

for low heart rate). The Equality of Variance was checked by Levene’s Test and was shown

to be non-significant as well (p = 0.08).

These results indicate that anger was not rated significantly differently by people with

high and low heart rates.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of cardiac activity on the

perception of emotions. We attempted to determine the link between high heart rate and the

perception of anger in others. On the basis of MNS, it was hypothesized that the high heart

rate group would rate anger more intensely in others than the low heart rate group.

Our results however imply that individuals with high heart rates do not perceive anger

more intensely in others despite experiencing it more intensely themselves. This further

implies that even though heart rate plays a role in how anger is experienced, it does not have

any part to play in its perception. These findings also reveal that there remains a substantial

difference between the experience of an emotion and its perception in others. Furthermore, it

has also been elucidated that we cannot rely completely on the pathway of the MNS to

explain this difference. Consequently, a harsh fact is brought to attention regarding the

vacuum of knowledge that exists regarding the parallels between experience and perception

of emotions. Therefore, predicting how an emotion will be perceived based on how it is

experienced is yet, unwise.

This study is best understood in the context of its limitations. For this research, no

heartbeat calculating devices were used and the participants were asked to count their

heartbeats manually themselves. Hence, it is a possibility that they may not have done it

accurately. Furthermore, the sample size used was relatively small and did not represent men

and women equally. Adding onto that, the heart rate of our participants did not show much

variation in the sense that even after being categorized as low and high, they were not too far

away from the normal range. Thus, our study did not have data that was very low or very

high.
 The present study can open up various avenues for future research. One of the biggest

challenges when researching the perception of emotion is being able to trigger that emotion

(Bastiaansen et al., 2009). Hence, it is plausible that watching photos of angry faces could not

simulate the same response in the observer and did not consequently lead to an intense

perception of anger through the MNS. In the future, it would be more instrumental if the

study did not take place online and the participants were shown actual people expressing

emotions in person. Replicating this study with videos of people expressing emotions instead

of photos could also possibly lead to new insights.

In conclusion, it is fair to state that difference in heart rate does not infer a difference

in the perception of emotion. The influence of heart rate is limited to how intensely anger is

experienced and does not extend to how it is perceived.

References

Bastiaansen, J. A. C. J., Thioux, M., & Keysers, C. (2009). Evidence for mirror systems in

emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,

364(1528), 2391–2404. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0058

Catmur, C., Walsh, V., & Heyes, C. (2009). Associative sequence learning: the role of

experience in the development of imitation and the mirror system. Philosophical

Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1528), 2369–2380.

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0048

Ebner, N. C., Riediger, M., & Lindenberger, U. (2010). FACES—A database of facial

expressions in young, middle-aged, and older women and men: Development and

validation. Behavior Research Methods, 42(1), 351–362.

https://doi.org/10.3758/brm.42.1.351
Eckhardt, C. I., & Deffenbacher, J. (1995). Diagnosis of anger disorders. Nger Disorders:

Definition, Diagnosis, and Treatment, 27–47. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1995- 98254-

002

Ekman, P., Freisen, W. V., & Ancoli, S. (1980). Facial signs of emotional experience.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6), 1125–1134.

https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077722

Herring, N., & Paterson, D. J. (2012). Chapter 20 - Adaption and Responses: Myocardial

Innervations and Neural Control. ScienceDirect, 275–284.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012381510100020X

Holland, C. A. C., Ebner, N. C., Lin, T., & Samanez-Larkin, G. R. (2018). Emotion

identification across adulthood using the Dynamic FACES database of emotional

expressions in younger, middle aged, and older adults. Cognition and Emotion, 33(2),

245–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1445981

Hori, M., & Okamoto, H. (2012). Heart rate as a target of treatment of chronic heart failure.

Journal of Cardiology, 60(2), 86–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjcc.2012.06.013

Juckel, G., Heinisch, C., Welpinghus, A., & Brüne, M. (2018). Understanding Another

Person’s Emotions—An Interdisciplinary Research Approach. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9,

414. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00414

Sauter, D. A., Eisner, F., Ekman, P., & Scott, S. K. (2010). Cross-cultural recognition of

basic emotions through nonverbal emotional vocalizations. Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, 107(6), 2408–2412. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0908239106

Sorella, S., Grecucci, A., Piretti, L., & Job, R. (2021). Do anger perception and the

experience of anger share common neural mechanisms? Coordinate-based meta- analytic

evidence of similar and different mechanisms from functional neuroimaging studies.

NeuroImage, 230, 117777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117777

Vasara, D., & Surakka, V. (2021). Haptic Responses to Angry and Happy Faces.

International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 37(17), 1625–1635.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2021.1898849

Wascher, C. A. F. (2021). Heart rate as a measure of emotional arousal in evolutionary

biology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,

376(1831), 20200479. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0479

Wu, Y., Gu, R., Yang, Q., & Luo, Y. (2019). How Do Amusement, Anger and Fear Influence

Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability? Frontiers in Neuroscience, 13(1131).

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2019.01131