Decoding human screams: perception of emotional arousal from pitch and duration

Abstract

Abstract Screams are phylogenetically widespread and typically associated with emotionally intense contexts, and thus present a window into the evolution of vocal emotion expression. Screams are distinct from other vocalizations, but nonetheless exhibit acoustic variation. The purpose of this study was to assess whether humans are sensitive to this variation, specifically, whether they base perceptions of screamer arousal on the pitch and/or duration of screams. A forced choice task revealed a significant tendency to perceive longer or higher-pitched (but otherwise acoustically identical) screams as more emotionally intense than shorter or lower-pitched screams, respectively. This pattern was independent of participants’ gender, empathy score, and previous exposure to screams in the media. Furthermore, scream pairs exhibiting greater differences in duration yielded more consistent responses. Evolutionary implications relating to the acoustic correlates of arousal across mammalian species, as well as the socioecological functions of screams in other primates, are discussed.