Disa Sauter: "Emotion preparedness"

Dr. Disa Sauter, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands: "Emotion preparedness: The foundation of emotional expressions"

Abstract
We all have emotions, but where do they come from? In this talk, I will present evidence that some emotional states are associated with discrete, innate expressions. I will draw on investigations of facial and vocal expressions of emotions in infants and congenitally deaf individuals, as well as across different cultures. Emotional expressions, like other aspects of emotions, are adaptations that have evolved to help us deal with recurring challenges and opportunities, and are modulated by learning. I will argue that our understanding of what emotions are should include a functional perspective entered around emotion preparedness.

Biography
I did my BSc in Psychology and Cognitive Science at University College London (2002), followed by a PhD in the same department (2006). Then I worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, after which I received an ESRC fellowship, which I took up at Birkbeck College London. In 2008 I moved to the Netherlands to work as a staff researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, where I stayed until 2011. I then moved to the University of Amsterdam, where I held a Veni grant (2011-2016) from the Dutch Science Foundation. My current funding includes an ERC Starting Grant and several grants from the Dutch Science Foundation. I am Associate Professor in the Department of Social Psychology at UvA and associate editor of the journal Emotion Review.

Selected Publications
Cong, Y-Q., Junge, C., Aktar, E., Raijmakers, M., Franklin, A., & Sauter, D. A. (2019). Pre-verbal infants perceive emotional facial expressions categorically. Cognition & Emotion, 33, 391-403

Keltner, D., Tracy, J. L., Sauter, D. A., & Cowen, A. (2019). What basic emotion theory really says for the twenty-first century study of emotion. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 43, 195-201.

Sauter, D. A. (2017). The nonverbal communication of positive emotions: An emotion family approach. Emotion Review, 9, 222-234.

Keltner, D., Tracy, J., Sauter, D. A., & Cordaro, D. C. (2016). Expression of emotion. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. Feldman Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of Emotions (pp. 467-482). New York: Guilford.

Sauter, D. A., Eisner, F., Ekman, P., & Scott, S. K. (2015). Emotional vocalizations are recognized across cultures regardless of the valence of distractors. Psychological Science, 26, 354-356.

Sauter, D. A., Panattoni, C., & Happé, F. (2013). Children's recognition of emotions from vocal cues. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 31, 97-113

Sauter, D. A., & Eimer, M. (2010). Rapid detection of emotion from human vocalizations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 474-481

Warren, J. E., Sauter, D. A., Eisner, F., Wiland, J., Dresner, M. A., Wise, R. J. S., ... Scott, S. K. (2006). Positive emotions preferentially engage an auditory-motor "mirror" system. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 13067-13075