Discriminating Drivers' Emotions through the Dimension of Power: Evidence from Facial Infrared Thermography and Peripheral Physiological Measurements

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate changes in body temperature as indicators for the emotional dimension of power during driving. Therefore, a driving simulator experiment with 18 participants was conducted, in which two emotions (Fear and noFear) with different characteristics in the dimension of power (low power and high power), which is described as power or weakness feelings of control, were induced using threat and challenge events in the driving scenarios. Infrared thermography video and automatic facial feature recognition were implemented to assess participants’ facial temperature. It was revealed that forehead temperature, which is supposed to represent emotional dimension of power, decreased significantly more after threat than after challenge events (t(17) = -1.83, p = .04, Cohen’s d = 0.54). These results suggest that forehead temperature as an indicator for the emotional dimension of power can help to measure drivers’ fear and thus aid reliable in-vehicle emotion recognition.