Interest was one of the main topics of my doctoral studies and is still something that I work on when I get the opportunity, particularly with my PhD supervisor, Fabrice Clément (Neuchâtel) and my colleagues Marcello Mortillaro (Geneva) and Catherine Audrin (HEP Lausanne). We have always considered interest as an emotion and have highlighted its role in motivating us when we someone else express it. This is particularly the case if that someone is a member of our ingroup, if it is someone we can trust. We have also shown that it can more easily be recognized in bodily expressions of interest, as seems to be more or less systematically the case for positive emotions – an argument we made in another paper. The most recent paper concerned interest’s role in the classroom.

Further reading:

Dukes, D. et Audrin, C. (2021). Émotions positives à l’école : quel intérêt ? [Positive emotions at school: where is the interest?]. Educateur (L)’, 4, 4-5.

Mortillaro, M., & Dukes, D. (2018). Jumping for joy: The importance of the body and of dynamics in the expression and recognition of positive emotions. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00763

Dukes, D., Clément, F., Audrin, C., & Mortillaro, M. (2017). Looking beyond the static face in emotion recognition: the informative case of interest. Visual Cognition, 25(4-6), 575-588. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2017.1341441

Clément, F., & Dukes, D. (2013). The role of interest in the transmission of social values. Frontiers in Psychology, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00349