Touch and voice have different advantages in perceiving positive and negative emotions.

Previous research has revealed that several emotions can be perceived via touch. What advantages does touch have over other nonverbal communication channels? In our study, we compared the perception of emotions from touch with that from voice to examine the advantages of each channel at the emotional valence level. In our experiment, the encoder expressed 12 different emotions by touching the decoder's arm or uttering a syllable /e/, and the decoder judged the emotion.

Cross-cultural similarity and cultural specificity in the emotion perception from touch.

Can people communicate distinct emotions by touch? Previous studies in the United States have indicated that certain emotions could be perceived above the chance level when an encoder conveys emotions by touching a decoder's arm. However, the perception of emotions from touch has not been investigated in Japan, where it is uncommon to use touch as a method of daily communication. Therefore, we conducted an experiment with Japanese participants, which was nearly identical to previous studies with non-Japanese people.