At the heart of the project is the goal of uniting two powerful but traditionally separate scientific approaches. On the one hand, Relevance Theory, a pragmatic theory of communication and utterance interpretation; and on the other, Appraisal Theory, a psychological framework for understanding how emotions arise in response to meaningful events.

Both theories share a key idea: that human minds are constantly on the lookout for “relevance”, or information that’s meaningful in a certain way. But each theory approaches the idea from a different angle. Relevance Theory focuses on how we interpret information in terms of how impactful and effort-saving it is. Appraisal Theory looks at how we feel emotions when something seems important to our needs or goals. Dr Wharton’s project sets out to build a bridge between the two theories, creating a clearer picture of how we both feel and communicate emotions.

The research takes a deep dive into emotional expressions that go beyond words – including tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, and emotional sounds such as sighs or laughs.

For example, saying “I’m disappointed” can mean very different things depending on how it’s said: an angry tone might suggest a threat, while a fearful tone might signal worry or helplessness. Beyond words, non-verbal behaviours suggest a range of meanings and implications.

Dr Wharton is particularly interested in how our tone of voice helps listeners figure out what someone means emotionally, and how that influences their reactions. This part of the project explores how we detect and respond to signals of emotion, even when they’re subtle, unintended, or covert in some way – something that happens all the time in everyday life.

To bring this ambitious work to life, Dr Wharton and his post-doctoral researcher are collaborating with the Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences (CISA) in Geneva, one of the world’s leading institutions in the study of emotion. The project will produce a range of publications, including a monograph, and includes seminars, workshops, and collaborative research sessions with experts in emotion science, all aimed at exploring the role of emotion in communication more deeply and rigorously. These international connections also help ensure that the findings of the project will have broad relevance across disciplines, from philosophy and psychology to clinical communication and even artificial intelligence.

Ultimately, Dr Wharton’s research promises to change the way we think about how emotions work in communication – offering a new theoretical framework with practical implications for mental health, education, the arts, and technology.