The Aggressive Body: Understanding Aggression Combining Virtual Reality, Computational Movement Features, and Neuroimaging

Among the many kinds of bodily expressions of emotion, anger occupies an important place because of its role in social interactions and aggressive confrontations that may threaten survival. We already have a basic understanding of how aggressive body expressions are perceived and how adaptive reactions are prepared in situations of social threat. But so far, most research has been conducted in laboratory settings with limited ecological validity. This review advocates the use of virtual reality in combination with other measurement techniques in order to better understand aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, a novel framework for the study of body expression is put forward which zooms into the detailed processes related to posture and movement features that sustain high-level semantic descriptions of aggressive behavior in daily interactions.