Emotion in Conversation, Emotion in Bodies

We feel social interaction in our bodies: emotions that emerge in interaction are felt through heart beat, sweating, muscular tension and other bodily responses.

In a series of studies combining conversation analysis, psychophysiological measures and other interactional methods, we have examined the ways in which interactionally expressed emotions are associated with the participants’ autonomic nervous responses indexing physiological arousal.

We have found that empathy calms down the person who is receiving empathy, and in the same time it increases arousal in the person who is showing it. The connection between empathy and arousal can be understood as an indication of a systemic relation between interactional regulation and self regulation of emotion.