Analyses of Sensory and Body Images Related to Basic Emotions by the Modality Differential Method and the Newly Devised Body-Image Location Scale

Abstract

Differences in emotions are often expressed using sensory modalities or body images. This study aimed to analyze how basic-emotions（happiness,  sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust） are related to sensory modality images using the modality differential（MD）  method. Furthermore, in order to analyze how basic-emotions are related to body images, we devised a body-image location（BIL）  scale. Participants （N=156） rated the relevance of each of the six emotions（happiness,  sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust） for ten sensory modalities and eight body locations on a 7-point scale. The MD method revealed a strong relevance of happiness to gustatory sense. According to the BIL, chest had strong relevance to all six emotions. Thus, we found that both the MD method and BIL would be useful for capturing the sensory modality and body-image relevance of basic-emotions.