Guilt is a negative emotion elicited by realizing one has caused actual or perceived harm to another person. One of guilt’s primary functions is to signal that one is aware of the harm that was caused and regrets it, an indication that the harm will not be repeated. Verbal expressions of guilt are often deemed insufficient by observers when not accompanied by nonverbal signals such as facial expression, gesture, posture, or gaze. Some research has investigated isolated nonverbal expressions in guilt, however none to date has explored multiple nonverbal channels simultaneously. This study explored facial expression, gesture, posture, and gaze during the real-time experience of guilt when response demands are minimal. Healthy adults completed a novel task involving watching videos designed to elicit guilt, as well as comparison emotions. During the video task, participants were continuously recorded to capture nonverbal behaviour, which was then analyzed via automated facial expression software. We found that while feeling guilt, individuals engaged less in several nonverbal behaviours than they did while experiencing the comparison emotions. This may reflect the highly social aspect of guilt, suggesting that an audience is required to prompt a guilt display, or may suggest that guilt does not have clear nonverbal correlates.

内疚是一种负面情绪，是由于意识到一个人对另一个人造成了实际或感知的伤害而引发的。内疚的主要功能之一是表明一个人意识到所造成的伤害并对此感到遗憾，这表明这种伤害不会再次发生。如果没有伴随面部表情、手势、姿势或凝视等非语言信号，观察者常常认为口头表达内疚是不够的。一些研究调查了内疚感中孤立的非语言表达，但迄今为止还没有研究同时探索多个非语言渠道。这项研究探讨了当反应需求最小时，实时体验内疚时的面部表情、手势、姿势和目光。健康成年人完成了一项新颖的任务，其中包括观看旨在引发内疚感和比较情绪的视频。在视频任务期间，参与者被连续记录以捕捉非语言行为，然后通过自动面部表情软件进行分析。我们发现，当感到内疚时，个体的一些非语言行为比经历比较情绪时要少。这可能反映了内疚的高度社会性，表明观众需要促使内疚的表现，或者可能表明内疚没有明显的非语言关联。