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Investigating the Impact of Pretend vs Genuine Emotions in Caregiver-Infant Interactions

Semester: Fall 2025


Presentation description

This project investigates how caregivers modify their emotional expressions-often exaggerating or even producing pretend emotions-during interactions with infants, a style known as emotionese. Drawing on more than 150 hours of naturalistic home video, the project codes caregivers' emotional displays along dimensions such as intensity, genuineness, and contextual appropriateness. These coded data will allow us to compare how infants respond to pretend versus genuine emotional expressions.

Presentation slides

Presenter Name: Brandt Bosworth
Presentation Type: Oral
Presentation Format: Virtual
Presentation #8
College: Social & Behavioral Science
School / Department: Family & Consumer Studies
Research Mentor: Lukas Lopez

Video