New research from our Department of Psychology has revealed that children are far more likely than adults to judge a person's emotions by what they hear rather than what they see.
The study found that when children are shown someone expressing one emotion through their body language while making a sound that conveys a different emotion, they overwhelmingly trust the sound they hear.
Adults, however, are much more likely to rely on visual information such as body language, or show no clear preference between the two.
The findings reveal that children and adults can come to completely different conclusions about how a person is feeling, even when watching and listening to exactly the same interaction.
Our researchers tested 164 participants, including children aged four to 11 and adults.
Participants watched short video clips showing people expressing emotions through body movements, paired with emotional sounds such as laughter, cries, screams or angry vocalisations.
Sometimes the body language and sounds matched. Other times they conflicted. For example, participants might see a fearful body movement paired with a happy laugh.
When the cues matched, all age groups recognised emotions accurately.
But when the cues conflicted, children consistently based their judgement on the emotion they heard rather than the emotion they saw.
The findings build on previous research showing that children often prioritise auditory information over visual information when processing the world around them.
The new study demonstrates that this difference also affects how children understand emotions and social interactions.
Researchers believe this could have important implications for education, healthcare and other environments designed for children.
The work suggests that adults may sometimes focus heavily on visual environments, such as colourful classroom displays or brightly decorated children's hospital wards, while overlooking the emotional impact of sounds.
The findings also highlight the importance of tone of voice when communicating with children.
A calm appearance may not be enough to reassure a child if a person's voice conveys stress, anxiety or frustration.
Future research will explore whether carefully designed soundscapes in schools, such as calming natural sounds, could influence children's experiences and engagement.
The research team is also planning further studies to understand why children prioritise auditory information and to investigate how different sounds affect learning and emotional responses in classroom settings.
The study was led by Dr Paddy Ross and is published in the journal Infant and Child Development.
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