The Regulation of Emotions by Linguistic Rituals; Project as part of the Excellency Cluster ‘Languages of Emotion’ of Free University Berlin
- 2008-2009; funded by DFG
- PIs: H. Wiese, Annette Hohlfeld (University of Potsdam), Katja Werheid (Humboldt-University Berlin)
The project investigated in how far emotions can be regulated by linguistic rituals. We started from the hypothesis that ritual (linguistic and non-linguistic) contexts, due to their high degree of structural parallelisation, can serve to synchronise emotions in social groups and trigger a positive feeling of control. Against this background, we investigated the effects of linguistic parallelisms from religious and non-religious rituals, on the perception of faces that expressed positive, neutral, or negative emotions. In our studies, we analysed reaction times and event-related potentials, based on EEG measurements.